It’s Christmas Eve in Iceland and all through the house not a creature is stirring … because everybody’s reading. It’s a tradition called Jólabókaflóðið, or Yule book flood, where people gift each other books and spend Christmas Eve at home with family, reading.
Icelander or not, it’s a fact that books make great gifts. While buying a book for someone can be a bit tricky, we have a few suggestions to help in the gift search.
For children and the young at heart, Merry Christmas, Little Elliot is a beautifully illustrated story about an elephant and his mouse friend, who set out in search of the Christmas spirit. The entire story will have you saying, aww.
For adults, The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin tells the story of four siblings whose fortunes are told by a mystic when they are children, and the ways in which the prophecies determine the course of their lives. We both have this book at the top of our 2018 favorites.
The book world offers plenty of resources for gift buyers as well. Best-of lists by the New York Times, NPR, The Guardian and Publishers Weekly provide some guidance, as do websites such as Book Riot and Literary Hub.
Or make it easy and gift a membership (or sign up for your own) to the Book of the Month Club; it’s $15 per month and you get your choice of one of five hardcover books. For a reader, it’s the best kind of gift.