Unfortunately, the silly season is upon us. Stress. Lots of traveling. Dealing with family in awkward settings. Gaining weight from pies, cookies, and cocktails. The works.
It’s also the best season. Why? Because every single one of us has the ability to wow someone with a new book!
The economy is stablized compared to three years ago and this year’s Black Thursday/Friday saw holiday shoppers spend significant money, a large increase over last year. I saw people on the news lining up in front of Target, Best Buy, Walmart and any number of other big box stores, ready to spend their money, ready to get a deal. Sadly, I did not see people in bookstores. The media went where there was a high likelihood of people being pepper sprayed and they got their footage. Thankfully book buyers aren’t volatile like that!
From what I did see on the news though, people were buying, buying, buying. There were televisions. There were gaming consoles. There were video games. There were these plush Angry Birds toys that I want to unstitch and return back to the ether from whence they came. But no video footage of what gives hours of quiet, unstressed enjoyment.
Books.
The shopping season isn’t over. It’s just begun. There are many ways to show you care. I choose the book. Here in a week or so, I will put together a personal list of people I am buying for. Every one of them is getting a book. It won’t be the same book. I think about the person, who they are, and from that what they will likely enjoy. Some people will be getting The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett or Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. Some people will be getting Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Others will be getting Steve Jobs by Walter Walter Isaacson or Back To Work by Bill Clinton. At least two people I know will be getting a cookbook like Tom Douglas’ Seattle Kitchen.
One of my nurses, who I don’t know well enough, will be getting a University Bookstore gift card.
The point is this. Books are important. Books are magical. They can be the perfect gift if a bit of thought is put into it. They can lend hours of entertainment; they can teach someone a new thing or two. They help us all become more than what we were when we started reading them.
And that appeals to me.
So on this Cyber Monday, when deals are flying through the internet(s) on the backs of electrons, think about buying those in your life a book or two.
It could be the best gift they get!
