Dear Reader,
Last month, at a book club in Bengaluru, we talked about giving books as gifts.
We sat around a table, over cups of cappuccino at a quaint cafe, and people took notes, as all kinds of fabulous titles came up — book remedies for stress, existential angst, new parenthood and career crises.
“A Man Called Ove - it’s the equivalent of a big hug. Also, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, these are the books I
Dear Reader,
Last month, at a book club in Bengaluru, we talked about giving books as gifts.
We sat around a table, over cups of cappuccino at a quaint cafe, and people took notes, as all kinds of fabulous titles came up — book remedies for stress, existential angst, new parenthood and career crises.
“A Man Called Ove - it’s the equivalent of a big hug. Also, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, these are the books I gift most often,” said V.
“To new colleagues at work - The First 90 Days. To friends Man’s Search for Meaning,” said S.
“Atlas of the Heart - this beautifully illustrated book by Brene Brown,” said D.
In the end, in anticipation of all the birthdays and festivals coming our way, we walked across to the indie Champaca bookstore to pick up some of these amazing books — gifts for ourselves, advance gifts for other people!
“I take a book to meet a friend. I take a book to meet an enemy. ‘My mind is made of books’”, says Max Porter in the enthralling The Gifts of Reading.
It’s a collection of essays you can pore over for hours, as writers like Philip Pullman, Roddy Doyle, Imtiaz Dharker and Robert Macfarlane, tell stories about how being gifted books changed their lives. And how in turn, they were inspired to reciprocate, gifting books to people around them.
It’s such a beautifully written book, I found myself underlining every fifth line. Like these lines by S F Said, the Lebanese English writer of children’s books: “Books can come to us as physical gifts. They can also come as gifts of time and energy, as when adults read books with children; or through the gift of recommendation, which can also change lives, as very librarian and bookseller knows.”
Specially mesmerising for me, was the essay by Pico Iyer; moving with him from Mumbai to Japan, from Graham Greene to Rohington Mistry, and moved to absolute agreement as he says, “reading is the richest conversation I know.”
So this festival season, drive across to your nearest bookstore and pick up book gifts!
Here are some ways to choose the perfect book gifts —
Buying Book Gifts Option 1: It’s all in this Book!
The Novel Cure is as zippy as the title suggests — it has bookish medicine for every malady! If it’s depression, cheer up with I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. If it’s low self-esteem, read The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, and if it’s extravagance then Kingfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden — and so on — till you reach “zestlessness” and then go right back to “abandonment”.
Buying Book Gifts Option 2: Investigate Book Lists
There’s a plethora of lists online, everything from book recommendations by Barack Obama to Bill Gates — in addition, you might enjoy Book Box recommendations — here are the best books for fathers, best books for mothers, book gifts for brothers, sisters and friends. Medical stories, college stories, and best books on architecture and fiction for economists. Books on democracy, mythology, spirituality and personal finance.
Wishing you a happy Diwali and happy gifting! Till next week, happy reading!
Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya’s Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to her at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com
The views expressed are personal
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