Gift Ideas for Bookworms Other Than Books

One of the nice things about befriending a bookworm is that they almost never fall into the "people who have everything" category. Unless they were to own all the books in the Library of Congress, there will always be another worthwhile book for them to acquire and consume. Of course, books themselves are not the only gift ideas for bookworms. Consider this list of options.

Gift Ideas for Bookworms: Personal Library Kit. A friend of mine gave me this delightful gift a few years ago, and though I don't hang onto many possessions, this one has stuck. It's a full-on kit for organizing your home library the old fashioned way, with checkout cards for the books, rubber stamps, and everything else you need to play librarian. And practically, it's an effective way to keep track of the books you lend! Some book retailers and novelty shops sell personal library kits, though you can of course find them online.

Gift Ideas for Bookworms: Framed Print. Plenty of fine art has inspired literature - and vice versa. I'm partial to John Martin's print of Satan tempting Eve, as inspired by John Milton's Paradise Lost. But this is just one of many examples of art created in response to the literary canon. You can also find some famous book covers which have been made into prints. A large print of cover of Wells' The Invisible, available at www.art.com, is one such example.

Gift Ideas for Bookworms: Tickets to an Author Event. If a popular author is in town to give a reading of his or her work, consider buying your bookworm tickets to the event. David Sedaris is always wryly entertaining - a personal favourite of mine. Linguist and political commentator George Lakoff was recently at my library for a small fee. Find out which authors your bookworm favors and hop to it. Good places to check? The public library, theatres, and local universities.

Gift Ideas for Bookworms: Audio Books. For a bookworm who spends a lot of time driving on the freeway…or cooking in the kitchen…or doing anything that makes reading impractical at the time, audio books are a considerate gift. Just be sure your bookworm hasn't read the title yet.

Gift Ideas for Bookworms: Bookbinding Seminars. Occasionally, a community group, college, library, or bookstore will run a class on how to bind your own books or make your own paper. If you're confident it will work with your bookworm's schedule, send them off to this apprenticeship. Materials are usually included in the cost of the course. If you're lucky, after the seminar is over, your bookworm will give you a hand-make book or journal out of gratitude.

Gift Ideas for Bookworms: OED. It's expensive. It's extravagant. It's etymologically detailed. And it's exactly what some bookworms would swoon for - their own copy of the Oxford English Dictionary. The comprehensive sourcebook for the English language, filled with more details than any one person could ever handle, is available in hard copy form, but a subscription to the online service at www.oed.com won't break the bank as handily.

Gift Ideas for Bookworms: Bookends. Though Bookends is one of my favourite Simon and Garfunkel albums, I am talking about real bookends this time. Look for something interesting and unusual - perhaps even something related to the bookworm's profession or hobbies? A geologist or jeweler, for example, may like geode rock bookends.

Gift Ideas for Bookworms: Subscription to the New York Times. I also recommended this as a gift for college-bound students. It really is our nation's, if not the world's, newspaper. Besides appealing to readers for its solid news writing, the book review section is cleverly critical, providing shrewd appraisals of brand new releases. In other words, this gift plays double duty as both reading material and a suggestion tool for reading material.

Gift Ideas for Bookworms: Language Learning Kit. Some bookworms lament that they want to brush up on their Spanish, futz with their French, or learn a new language altogether - maybe Czech? Swahili? Chinese? Whatever the case, a language learning kit - complete with books, dictionaries, software, audio tools - is a great way to nudge that person who loves language but hasn't yet committed the time and resources to mastering a foreign one. As extra motivation, include some classic pieces of non-English literature in the original language - maybe a copy of Don Quixote in Spanish? Or Anna Karenina in Russian?