I consider book stores as my comfort zone in the same way a fisherman finds solace at sea. May be this is why I call my book-finding adventures as trawling for books. Like a fisherman, I cast my net far and wide hoping to get a bounty of a catch in book choices. I set aside those whose titles and/or authors may interest me or my friends and put back in the shelves/bins those that don't.
Books are neutral gifts for friends because they don't have a loaded meaning like giving a deodorant spray or sexy underwear. I try to remember or surmise what type of books might interest a friend (Is s/he passionate about it, is it job/project-related, is it something s/he can learn anything from?).
If it were just for the sake of gift-giving (like for a Christmas party where you don't really know who'll get the exchange gift you brought), any book will do. But I take time to discern how my friends will be delighted/enlightened in reading their gift-books. This friend misses his father so much, I think this book on fathers and sons will soothe his feelings. That doctor-friend may be surprised to know that medicine is not only good for textbooks, but also for short stories and essays. This book on practical foreign language phrases might help this friend communicate better with her fiance.
It doesn't need an occasion for me to give gift-books. When the right book comes out of my trawling expeditions, I feel giddy to buy it for the intended reader. So, my friends should not be surprised when I approach them, smiling with a book in hand. Each gift-book comes with this: I immediately thought of you when I saw this book. I'm happy to be the bridge so this book can cross over to you.
I am just glad I found you! One bookworm who thrives on books and and never ending search for knowledge. Than you also for sharing to me your books, and for thinking of me when a book comes at your sight.
ReplyDeleteOne of the pleasures in my life is finding fellow bookworms like you :)
ReplyDeleteIt's a joy giving you books I know you'll really enjoy.
What a lovely site ! Thank you. It immediately put me in mind of one of my all-time favourite books, 84, Charing Cross Road. I happened to pick it up at our local library's book sale and, after reading 10 pages right there, I realized I was meant to own it. (Thanks to Wikipedia for the following...) It is a 1970 book by Helene Hanff, later made into a stage play, television play and film, about the twenty-year correspondence between her and Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks & Co, antiquarian booksellers located at the eponymous address in London, England.
ReplyDeleteHanff, in search of obscure classics and British literature titles she had been unable to find in New York City, noticed an ad in the Saturday Review of Literature and first contacted the shop in 1949, and it fell to Doel to fulfill her requests. In time, a long-distance friendship evolved, not only between the two, but between Hanff and other staff members as well, with an exchange of Christmas packages, birthday gifts, and food parcels to compensate for post-World War II food shortages in Britain. Their letters included discussions about topics as diverse as the sermons of John Donne, how to make Yorkshire Pudding, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the coronation of Elizabeth II.