I've maxed out. Closed this blog. |
My extended family spends Christmas together. We give a lot of gifts, both simple and expensive. This past year, the overwhelming majority of us gave books. My dad received the complete set of Louis L'Amour books in matching leather covers. Someone else gave him a stack of paperbacks, and yet another person gave him books. I received books, and so did several others. A month later we exchanging or lending our gifts to others. It suddenly hit us that a more useful exchange of Christmas gifts would be books that are easily lent or exchanged, since you can't get count on getting them back. So you give a book(s) that the recipient would like, but that you wouldn't mind getting back in a month or two. This way we can spend less money, avoid dust collectors, wrong sizes, and get more mileage from the gifts.Months later we all have a chance for review and discussion. Some books won't be exchanged, like leather bound collectors books. Or specialty books, like one on antique guns for the gun collector, or one on antique comic books. Or Bible commentaries or other reference books. |