Common readers are chic.
If you’ve been to a reader’s fashion show, you know what I mean.
On the runway you will see a bespectacled model dressed in a Jane Austen sweatshirt and composition-book print yoga pants. She holds a copy of Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady and sips from a mug that says, “I’m silently correcting your grammar.”
But, dear reader, you can have a chic Christmas without the latest fashions! JUST TREAT YOURSELF (OR FRIENDS) TO ONE ITEM BELOW.
1 A reference book. A good reference book has the advantage of being written by experts and researchers. Wikipedia is fun, but there are mistakes. I recommend an old set of encyclopedias (cheap at used bookstores), James Audubon’s Birds of America, or anything else that interests you.
2 A dictionary (the biggest you can afford). You will enjoy the detailed entries, love the etymology, and when you look up “ineffable,” you will see pages and page of words beginning with “i.” (On the internet you see only what you look up.)
3 A thesaurus. So many synonyms!
4. A slim volume of poetry. Everyone should have one. You might read A. E. Stalling’s new translation of Hesiod’s Works and Days (Penguin, 33 pages) but you will never open that huge anthology of classical poetry.
5. A used copy of a novel by Balzac (preferably a Penguin). “This old thing? I’ve read it, like, 100 times.” Pere Goriot…Cousin Bette… You’ll be late for work BECAUSE YOU WERE READING but who can fire you for that?
6. A new book journal. Forget the spreadsheet and return to paper when you write your book journal.
7. Reading socks (Barnes and Noble). They’re just socks, but you want them! You can also write your own label, Reading Socks, on an ordinary pair of socks and give them as a gift.
8. An old-fashioned Rolodex to keep track of characters in Proust. Experience the 20th century! It’s fun to write the information on cards!
9. A mug with a bookish slogan. They’re frivolous, but we all like a Jane Austen mug.
10. A totebag doesn’t need a literary slogan, but everyone needs a totebag!
DO LET ME KNOW YOUR FAVORITE RETRO-CHIC BOOK GIFT IDEAS!