Thursday 18 December 2008

Booking Through Thursday

This week's BTT:

Do you give books as gifts? To everyone? Or only to select people? How do you feel about receiving books as gifts?

I do sometimes give books as gifts - usually it'll be one (or more!) that the receiver has specifically requested or another work by an author that I know they have enjoyed. Mr B often gets random books I think he will like as does my ten year old neice! Sometimes I will look for a bookish gift form someone that I think that they'll like but only as long as it's newly out or something I am pretty confident that they won't have. That's not because I am worried I will pick a totally unsuitable book but because I hate getting duplicate books as gifts...

Which brings me to Part Two of the question! I love getting books as presents. Just love it. See my post about feeling a bit Smaugish! But. And a big but. I have a wishlist that extends to 100s of books. Literally 100s. So. Why would anyone go and buy me (The Bookling!) an off-list book that has been out for a while? The chances are pretty high that I either have it or that I am not interested. There is also an outside chance that I might not have it and it's a treasure-in-waiting which might be why people occasionally adopt this approach.

Either likely option leads to a bit of a social crisis -just what is the right way to respond? "Lovely book and I really enjoyed it when I bought it three years ago - got the receipt?" or "Erm - thanks..." and list it on greenmetropolis asap?

I probably sound really ungrateful but if someone wants to buy me a book as a surprise then why not get in touch with Mr B and ask him to hack into my wishlist? There's plenty to choose from. I would suggest that they could ask him to check my shelves but I know that would be a hopeless quest!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW, where did you get that book widget, may I ask?

Anonymous said...

I have a huge wishlist too - or even a list of books I don't have. I get some pretty bizarre titles when I eventually get books as gifts.

Peta said...

Karin - congrats on the new cat! Let me know what book widget you mean and I will let you know! If you mean my header then it's an illstration from The City Of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers.

SmilingSally said...

Once I received a book that I already had; I still loved it as a gift idea. I simply took it to the friendly book store and got a title that I'd been wanting.

Beth F said...

You know, I should give a copy of my book wish list to my husband. Never thought of that. We don't get each other books -- decided long ago that we would each be responsible for our own books (it works for us!). But never thought that he could pass the list on to relatives.... hummmm.

Robin M said...

Most of my family knows I keep an amazon wishlist and will buy me books from the list. I appreciate that. It's not as huge as yours, though. :)

Like your blog.

Robin of mytwoblessings

Bibliophile said...

Oooo I've gone off your list before.. I don't mind if you take them back & change for something else! Most of the time I'm good & stick to the ones on list. I love getting books, my sprogg however rolls her eyes at me says "mu-um" you've got too many already. She'll learn.

Peta said...

Bibliophile - wait until your sprog sees the set of 15 books waiting for her under my tree ;)