Bookish Christmas Gift Guide 2016

Buying books for book lovers is really hard because we already have ALL OF THE BOOKS! My family notoriously never know what books to buy me for Christmases and Birthdays unless I specifically ask for them because they never know what I already own, some even flat out refuse to buy me any books because I already have "too many" (as if there is such a thing!) So today I wanted to put together a list of alternative bookish gift ideas that aren't books for anyone wanting to buy something for the reader in their lives. There are always so many book blogger Secret Santa's going on at this time of year and the gifts in this guide would make perfect bookish presents with something to offer every reader.

Bookbandz

 
I absolutely love a good bookmark and these handmade Bookbandz have to be some of the prettiest bookmarks out there. The bandz are made to order with different charms and beads to suit any taste. There are some beautiful Christmas charms available at the moment including gingerbread men, Christmas trees, angels and more. The owner Karen can also make bookmarks in the style of your favourite book with a charm of the books cover taking pride of place in the center surrounded by matching beads. For a unique, handmade, bookish gift you really can't go wrong here. The bandz are priced at £5 each or 3 for £12 so they're perfect if you've got a few people to buy for. To see the full range visit Karen here.

 Klevercase

If the reader in your life prefers e-readers to psychical books then a gorgeous new e-reader case may be the way to go and Klevercase offers some of the best in my opinion. Their cases are designed to look like books and are made using traditional bookbinding techniques. There is a design to suit any reader although my personal favourite has to be the Book of Spells design inspired by Harry Potter. The cases are made to fit all of the popular e-readers and a really nice touch is that they can be personalized with a message for an extra cost. To see the whole Klevercase range visit them here. Prices vary depending on the e-reader.

Stack of Books Earrings

Another gift that I am absolutely loving are these bookish earrings. I think that they are so cute and make a really lovely gift if you'd like to give the reader in your life something other than books this year. There is so much bookish jewellery out there so it's worth shopping around to find the right style for the person you are buying for but for me personally it doesn't come much cuter than this. The earrings retail at £16.00 and can be bought at The Literary Gift Company.

 Bookish Mug

Another brilliant gift from The Literary Gift Company are their bookish mugs. I've given these as a gift before and they always go down a storm. Again there are many different mugs to choose from in this style ranging from reading, writing, blogging, tweeting etc so you can choose the best fit for the gift recipient. This mug costs £9.95 and is the perfect choice for anyone who doesn't like to be disturbed when they're reading (aka all of us!)

Bookstore Scented Candle

We all have that friend who can not get enough of the smell of books and at last that smell has been captured in candle form so that your room can smell like your favourite bookstore. Frostbeard are an Etsy seller that ship worldwide and some of their candle fragrances include Winterfell, Sherlock's Study and Pemberley Garden's to name a few. This would make the perfect gift for anyone who loves to burn candles whilst reading. To check out the full range visit Frostbeard's Etsy store here.

 Reading Journal

Another option that would be particularly perfect for book bloggers is a reading journal. I've kept a reading journal ever since I started blogging and I would be lost without it. They're a great way of keeping a record of what you've read and are great for jotting down thoughts about a book before reviewing. I particularly like this one from The Literary Gift Company selling at £9.95 I think this would make a nice, thoughtful gift for anyone who likes to keep track of their reading.

 Evie Seo Designs

My biggest recommendation for bookish gifts is for Evie Seo's designs over on Society6. Evie's artwork is so beautiful with a focus on books. Her designs can be printed on to t-shirts, mugs, phone cases, tote bags and pillows to name a few. Her range is extensive covering many different fandoms so if you're struggling to find the perfect gift you are guaranteed to find something here. I recently received the tote bag pictured as a gift and it's such good quality with thick handles and plenty of room inside. I can't see anyone disliking something by Evie and there are so many options depending on your budget. To view the complete range visit Evie here.

 I hope this gift guide helps make your Christmas shopping a little easier 

and that you find the perfect gift for your favourite book lover!

Event Write Up: Laini Taylor talk and signing at Waterstones Birmingham

On Thursday 1st May Waterstones on Birmingham High Street hosted an evening with Laini Taylor to celebrate the release of Dreams of Gods and Monsters and I was lucky enough to be there. I went with the bestie (Rachel for those of you who don’t know) we’re both huge Laini Taylor fans who fell in love with her stunning writing way back when we read early proof copies of Daughter of Smoke and Bone in 2011 so we literally bought the tickets as soon as we heard about the event. We don’t get many YA author signings local to us and so this news was super awesome. This was only our second time meeting an author (our first was John Green) so we were ridiculously excited!

We arrived just before the event started at 7:30pm, we wanted to get there sooner but there was traffic and our food took what felt like forever to arrive in Nandos. Luckily we still managed to get two seats on the second row right behind the lovely Jasprit who it was so great to finally meet! By the time we’d had a quick chat and grabbed a copy of Lips Touch and some bookmarks for signing Laini was ready to come on for a Q&A. I’m just sad that we arrived a little later than planned because I saw a few other bloggers there that I sadly didn’t get a chance to talk to. If there are more events like this one in the future then hopefully next time.

Laini talking

The Q&A part of the event went on for quite a while which was great! We got to hear Laini talk about her involvement with the Daughter of Smoke and Bone movie, how travel has influenced her writing and most interestingly to me how she loves playing with language. Anybody who’s read Laini’s books will tell you she has a beautiful way with words. She also told us that she likes to perfect each scene as she writes. Rather than writing a rough first draft of a book and editing it all later on she likes to edit as she goes.

Afterwards the fans were asked if they had any questions for Laini and my hand went straight up! Mine was the first question called on and I got to ask her if she has any plans to write a spin off series set in the same world as the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series (is it just me or is anybody else craving an Eliza series!?) Unfortunately the books she’s working on at the minute are not but she did say there’s a possibility in the future. Either way she’s working on a few different ideas for a novel right now and I can’t wait to see what she writes next. As a shy person I was quite proud that I struck up the courage to ask my question!

Free goodies!

After the talk Laini and the host went downstairs to get ready for the signing and while we waited we were given tattoos, bookmarks and the most amazing cakes (Zuzana would totally have approved!) They had cake pops that we could take away and blue cupcakes for Karou and orange ones with feathers for Akiva – I had a blue one which was delicious!

Before we knew it it was our turn to meet Laini. We had plenty of time with her to chat and get our books signed without feeling like we were getting rushed along. Laini signed and dedicated my books and we spoke about how awesome books with maps are, how pretty the foiling effect is on her UK covers and how Rach was live texting me her reactions as she read Dreams of Gods and Monsters.

My signed books

After all of that it was 9:00pm so we had to rush off to get our train home. The time absolutely flew by but I had such an amazing time. Laini was such a sweetheart and was a very interesting lady to get to know better. I want to thank Waterstones for giving me the chance to meet one of my favourite authors and for being so helpful and friendly. I’m hoping that they’ll be hosting lots of other amazing events like this one in the future!

Letterbox Love (18)

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey @ Narratively Speaking for UK based book bloggers to showcase the books that they’ve received each week.

 For Review

Cupcakes at Carrington's by Alexandra Brown
The Last Time I Saw You by Eleanor Moran
Unremembered by Jessica Brody (Proof Copy)
The Last Minute by Eleanor Updale

 Early Birthday Gifts

Shades of Earth by Beth Revis (Already read and LOVED!)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Gorgeous Clothbound Classics Edition)

Another bookmark for the collection! I love owls and this one has been on my wishlist for ages now so I'm so glad to finally have it!

 Bought For Kindle

The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski

That’s it from me for another week! If any of these beauties have caught your eye and you’d like to find out more about them simply click on the title and the link will take you to goodreads for a full synopsis, reviews, and to add them to your wishlists. As always thank you to the lovely publishing folk for the review copies and my mum and Ellie @ Musings of a Bookshop Girl for my pressies! If you’re looking forward to a certain book in particular and want to request a review feel free to in the comments and I’ll do my best to get around to the book sooner rather than later. And if you decided to do a Letterbox Love, Book Haul, IMM, Showcase Sunday, Mailbox Monday or whatever else featuring the books you got this week leave me a link as I’d love to check out your books too! ^_^

 Happy reading till next time!

My Latest Obsession…

So today I wanted to do something a little different and share with you guys something I have been loving lately. It is book related so I figured it suited the blog and with so many people starting Uni and are back at school now I thought this might be helpful to some of you. So you may know that I am OBSESSED with bookmarks and actually collect them, and you may also know that I was quite ill recently. And so my lovely friend and fellow blogger Ellie at Musings of a Bookshop Girl actually introduced me to this obsession when she gifted me some mini magnetic travel bookmarks as a get well soon gift! I absolutely loved the idea of having instead of one big bookmark lots of little ones especially as being a book blogger I like to mark off several pages for quotes I want to use in reviews or references that kind of thing and because I found them so useful I went straight on to Amazon and bought some more.

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You can get cute different designs but what I found really useful were the emotion, punctuation and word mini i-clips. I’d never come across this kind of bookmark before and immediately thought how useful they would be. Marking off a sad face with something I didn’t like about the book, a question mark for a word I needed to look up, an @ sign for something I needed to look up about the book online, they are so, so, handy for marking a quick quote or word in a book, selecting why your marking it off instead of actually having to write a note to yourself explaining and ending up having lots of bits of paper that tend to fall out and bulk up the book. And best of all, on the back of each clip is an arrow so you can point exactly to the sentence you’re referring to instead of having to read the whole page again to find the quote you bookmarked.

Click on images to enlarge

On top of being quick and easy to use the little magnets stay put and are nice and secure. They are so tiny that they look really discreet in your book and don’t make it too bulky. I like to store mine in the little plastic holders they come in using one for useful symbols and the other for the cute ones that are just for fun. I usually keep them on my desk so I can quickly grab one when I need it but they’re small enough to carry on the go as well. The i-clip bookmarks featured in this post are by Peter Pauper Press and can be found on Amazon for a mere £2.99 for eight. These little bookmarks really are a book bloggers best friend and have already been so useful to me so I really wanted to share a little post about them with you guys in case you’re a fellow book blogger, if you’re at school or uni and could use them for text books or required reading, or if you simply just love the idea and find them super cute and dinky! I have fallen in love with these little babies and have found them super useful when writing my book reviews, hopefully after reading this post some of you will try them out and fall in love with them too!