This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CollectiveBias
It can’t have failed to escape your attention that Christmas is coming, and where I’m concerned, that means books. So the other day I popped into town to do a little bit of book shopping at our local independent bookshop, Stillwater Books.
Isn’t this a beautiful place to shop? With a comfortable chair for browsing?
That’s the main area with the books for adults. I do enjoy browsing books actually in person, picking them up, feeling the covers, checking out the textures – can’t be just me, surely? And the children’s section, is equally attractive.
Even though it’s a small shop, they still carry something for every budget, with a range of cheap children’s classics, which are surprisingly attractive.
I have quite a lot of children to shop for. I like giving books at Christmas time, and there’s all my children, my sisters, their children, Tim’s family….
I picked up a couple of books to get me started.
The Christmas Alphabet is a beautiful book. It’s paper engineering, rather like the version of Lost and Found that we have somewhere. A book to cherish. Because I didn’t think you got the full beauty of it in pictures, I even did a little video. I know, you’re amazed.
So that’s a (very special) child’s book.
If you’re looking for other picture books, for funny books there’s Father Christmas needs a Wee, or Father Christmas comes up trumps (slightly rude 😉 ) both by Nicholas Allan. A particularly gorgeous picture book is When it snows by Richard Collinridge or for something a little different, there’s a beautiful illustrated edition of Snow by Walter de la Mare. Oh, and a recurring favourite here is the Jolly Christmas Postman. A nice slightly older picture book there, with lots going on.
For slightly older children, I know Small is looking forward to yet another Wimpy Kid book. It’s handy that they come out in winter each year 😉
A romance that both Big and I adore is Summer Dreams, Winter Love, very gentle book that takes you through 4 years of a teenager’s life growing into the most beautiful story.
Oh, and something that I would love to read myself is My True Love Gave to Me, as reviewed by Amber over here. (Hint hint if anyone is reading.)
Non fiction, I’m recommending the Snow Geese (see above) and then, of course I couldn’t let a book post go by without mentioning the wonderful Rachael Lucas and Sealed with a Christmas Kiss (reviewed here) available on Kindle or other edevices.
Funny fiction – I understand Nick Hornby may have a new title out 😉 And in other genres, if no one treats me to it, I may just have to buy myself Magician’s End, and lock myself in a quiet cupboard somewhere to say a final goodbye to Midkemia. (I can’t believe it’s the last book. I could put off reading it by doing a full backlist reread coudn’t I?)
As you can tell, books feature highly in my must have as well as must give present lists. That’s because when you give a book, you’re giving imagination, other worlds, travel and all sorts of other things in a wonderfully compact little packet. How can you possibly go wrong?
If I’ve missed out any must have or must give or just must read at this time of year titles, do drop me a comment to let me know. And if you’d like to shop independent, but don’t think there will be the range, don’t forget Hive.co.uk (I am assured by the chap in my local store that he *will* get around to joining soon.)
Leave a Reply