I love to trade books or give them away. I keep the favorites, but if I’m likely not going to read something again, at least in the near future, I’ve never seen the point of just filling bookshelves.

Eew, you give The Alchemist to people? Rude. /s

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(But lots of people here in this sub and in the world at large loathe that book. I personally have only hated two books in my life, The Historian and The Alchemist)

Yeah I was thinking a break between might be best, give the events time to breath in my mind. I mean the Biologist's final words were something like " Don't follow me. " xD

I've given both my best friend and her partner a copy of my favourite book (Six of Crows) and told them to read it. As for my other friends who love to read, they have wishlists on Amazon and I buy something off that for their birthdays, Christmas, etc. I don't just gift someone a book that may not be up their alley (unless they specifically ask me to do so).

I know what you mean about “personal touch”. I’ve been lucky that, lately, many of the gifts I bought were for weddings and baby births, and the recipients had registries. Whew, I was so glad to see them!

this is beyond merely interesting. Thanks for sharing!

I completely agree.

I just finished Wool this week and didn’t even realize it was going to be a TV series until after! I am always unsure how I feel about those adaptions because I have a specific picture in my head and don’t want to ruin it.

I only read ebooks these days, but in the past I never gave away books I loved because the fear of not getting them back was too big.

I gave up in the first one.

>For kids? Absolutely.

Good point

I told a friend of mine I plan to indoctrinate her son "Sam" into liking LOTR.

I got him a red dragon plushie when he was born.

He's getting The Hobbit for his fifth birthday.

Kronk voice: Yeah, it's all coming together

The Voyage of the Basset is a picture-heavy book with wonderful sketches in the margins and gorgeous illustrations everywhere. It means a lot to me as a place to start in fantasy, being about fantasy is a bonus, and as a book that was ready to me (especially as I struggled to ready and got to it late, then became voracious).

When I found out my niece was getting into reading, I almost broke 5+ years of no contact with a family member to see if I could get my copy for her. I didn't do that, but I did get her the book. I haven't heard much about it, but the point was to satisfy that little girl I used to be in getting that out there.

My coworker recommended the series to me awhile ago, but I just started Wool like last week. I'm only on chapter 2, but it's already getting good! I might have to read some more tonight because of yalls glowing reviews

I really enjoyed the claustrophobic melancholy feel of the series. But I'm a huge fan of the generation ship trope so this felt like a unique setting to that same genre.

I like to give something with some personal touch, so I usually don't go for gift cards. In particular the more generic ones; at that point, just give the money (but I'm cynical like that).

As for books, tho:

I once went to a birthday party of an enthousiastic reader. He's comfortable with his own taste in books too, and doesn't like to veer outside of it. He likes books, it's a well-known fact about him; most people know what his favourite authors are.

So inevitably, when one of his favourite authors published a new book, he got five copies as a birthday present from five different people. (Edit: of which he had to keep one copy, and return four. So he had to choose which copy to keep and potentially offend someone, and ask the others politely for a receipt of a gift they thought was thoughtful)

I just gave him a book voucher. A book everyone knows you want, you'll get from everyone. I rather give something so you can get the book I don't know you want.

For kids? Absolutely. For adults? Generally not.

Most adults I know primarily read ebooks or audiobooks anyway.

I only give them if they seem like a good fit for the person. For example a friend of mine was struggling with an elderly relative with end stage COPD and her adult kids moving back to the nest while renovating a shed in the back yard to live in so I bought her Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver. Or my step dad just fell off a ladder he had no business being on so I bought him Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg.

Yeah i buy books for people as gifts, and also give them away when I'm moving. to lighten my load

I look them over and read the insert, maybe skim a few pages. I don't care if they're read or not, whoever starts the book can decide for themselves.

I honestly thought it was one of the worst books I've ever read - had to quit at 300 pages in, after reading several pages about a woman sloshing around in soup.

Bet it'd make a great show, though.

Oh dang! I loved those books - I didn’t know it was becoming a series! Sweet.

The ol' glue-the-sheep trick

Hmm, okay thats good to know.

I remember struggling to stay awake for some of Authority, but ultimately I’m glad I stuck it out, and then Acceptance was more compelling.

It feels like the creepiness has shifted to more of a humans going crazy and deranged type of thing, rather than cosmic horror, nature watching you kind of thing ? Like event Horizon compared to Alien.