Dec 7 2008
2008 Holiday Book Buying Poll
Loading ...So I read that 25% of book sales are made during the holidays. There are book buying promotions all over the web. When I was at Barnes and Noble this weekend, it was packed with book buyers. Will you be buying books this holiday season? Any gift suggestions?
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Dec 07, 2008 @ 21:33:46
Elizabeth Donald’s Nocturnal Urges series for my vamp-loving sister.
The third book of the series, Abbadon for Mom, who has the first two. Also a copy of The Adventures of Robin Hood as Mom has never seen an Errol Flynn movie.
My youngest daughter is getting A Witch’s Primer: Grade 1 and The Girls’ Book How to Be the Best at Everything. The latter is her request.
My oldest daughter is getting Tarot for Dummies, which comes with the deck. Her request. She’s also getting Tales of Beedle the Bard and maybe volume 2 of Love, Hina a manga.
The younger boy is getting a Naruto manga. The older… maybe a book on comparative religions.
Dec 07, 2008 @ 21:53:25
I voted no, but, technically I’ll still be responsible for moving some books out anyway. I’ll be buying books for ME. Plus I usually receive at least one Borders gift card and sometimes an Amazon giftcard. My birthday is on the 30th and coming so close after Christmas, I run out of “wish list” ideas and no one knows what else to buy me because they complain I’m so damn picky.
Dec 07, 2008 @ 22:02:31
Well, got DH an illustrated On the Origins of Species by Darwin. Probably a funny book, too. Of course, I’ve also been buying books for myself.
Dec 07, 2008 @ 22:09:51
I bought The Time Traveler’s Wife for my Mom; Chosen by a Horse for my Dad; Where the Sidewalk Ends for my oldest daughter; Misty of Chincoteague and King of the Wind for my middle daughter; Owl Moon for my youngest daughter; Tony Dungy’s Quiet Strength for my husband; Stephen King’s last two Dark Towers for my sister (I don’t think she frequents this blog so I can say that here and not on mine!); and finally, I bought the first two Sebastin St. Cyr mysteries for myself after your recent review. The Mermaid one was out of print, so I had to buy it used. And I must admit to picking up books 2 and 3 of Brent Weeks’ Night Angel fantasy series after starting book 1, The Way of Shadows. I’m really loving it.
Dec 07, 2008 @ 22:13:25
Christmas is the only time of the year my dad does not complain about the number of books bought, seeing as how that’s most of me and my mom’s wish list. So I’ve went and bought all of the backlists for I think 5 different authors as well as all the new books and anthologies for the authors we already had. In total I think I’ve bought something like 50 books since black friday. That might last us until January if I can keep my mom out of the gifts closet.
Dec 07, 2008 @ 22:30:46
@BevQB:
“I'll be buying books for ME”
Me too. And technically I’m buying books as a gift as Spouse is a near Xmas baby, and as he’s about to become an Aussie citizen, I’ve bought him some books to edjumacate him about our history. But I never need an excuse to buy books, usually, and sending them as gifts from Australia is a mug’s game.
Dec 08, 2008 @ 00:26:00
All four of my kids, and my daughter-in-law, have books on their Christmas lists — I “cherry picked” most of those before passing the list along to my ex and his family. I also buy books for my brother’s son and grandchildren (my great-nieces) every Christmas, because if I don’t, no one else will. I am determined to keep reading alive in these kids, in between the DVDs and video games. So far I have purchased three YA books, five little kid books, six adult books and one VERY adult book, all for gifts this Christmas. And I’m not done — I intend to use every 25% off coupon that Borders send me!
The books I have found myself recommending a lot are by Melissa Marr, Libby Bray, and PC & Kristin Cast — all YA books recommended to people who asked me what to buy for their adolescent daughter who normally isn’t a reader, but who loved the Twilight books. The size of the YA fantasy shelf at my local Borders makes me very happy!
To cross threads for a minute, I will just say that I have never given an e-book as a gift. I can’t imagine doing so, except maybe as a gift certificate. My eldest daughter’s BF has drunk the Kindle-Aid, so now all his reading material (like all his music) is electronic/virtual in format. I will probably buy him a book anyway, or else bypass the whole question and get him a sweater.
Dec 08, 2008 @ 00:36:15
Dr. Seuss books are buy two get one free at Barnes & Noble if anyone has young kids on their list.
Dec 08, 2008 @ 02:02:27
My friends have books on their wishlists so I might be getting some books to gift others. My own wishlist has several books. If there were a way to request kindle books on your wishlist – I would. Rather receive a real book than a gift certificate, though.
If I can’t figure what to get someone, I give them a book. Maybe the hot business book of the year or another topic they’re into. None of my friends will sneer at a gifted book. Even my 2 year old nephew loves books! I go to the local indie children’s bookstore for his books because I want to get “smart” and interesting (for a toddler, anyhow) books for him that aren’t already in his ample collection.
Dec 08, 2008 @ 04:44:17
I’m not expecting to buy books as presents this year, although I have done in the past and I’m sure I shall do again. If I can’t find anything else for my dad, I might buy him a history book – not that he has any shelf space left in his study for more history books.
I shall definitely be responsible for books bought, though: when my mother said, ‘what do you want for Christmas?’ I gave her a list of books.
I expect I shall pick up a book or two for myself while I’m out Christmas shopping as well. I usually do. I shouldn’t – but after three hours traipsing around town and standing in queues I shall probably decide I’m so badly in need of a book, a sit-down and a coffee that I’ll be past caring about the money and stick it on the credit card to worry about in January. *guilt* I’m a bad person.
Dec 08, 2008 @ 07:02:42
My kids *always* get books for Christmas. At least one each.
Dec 08, 2008 @ 07:43:16
I bought books for my son, and a BBQ recipe book for the man. I usually get the boy new books every year and donate the older ones to his current class at the end of the year.
Dec 08, 2008 @ 07:58:17
I buy books year round for friends, but I have a couple friends who are on such limited budgets due to family circumstances, and their lives are so full of those circumstances, that I will often buy them a whole series. It gives them a chance to look forward to something in those rare breaks in time they have.
I usually buy the DDs books too, whatever’s on their list (within reason – DD1 wanted the hardcover collectors editions, in some kind of special packaging, for Harry Potter – needless to say, that wasn’t under the tree!) but they have a very diverse list so sometimes, I read what I buy them when I’m done.
And I always buy at least one book for me for Christmas. Not that I don’t spend tons all year on books already…
Dec 08, 2008 @ 09:29:32
I picked 1-4 but on reflection I realize that it’s wrong – more like 6-10 plus the books I’m buying for myself.
My sis-in-law is receiving Vegan Lunchbox (does non-fic count?). My kids also are each getting a book under the tree: my son will open a book with the legend/myth of the Minotaur along with a couple action figures of same and my daughter is getting a book about horses with a few horse figurines. Santa also leaves each child a new book at their bedside (a tradition designed to buy mom and dad a few minutes’ more sleep): boy child is getting an astronaut’s memoir and girl child the beautifully illustrated book of Lesbia Scott’s “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God”. My husband is receiving a memoir of a WWII pilot.
So that’s what? six books altogether. Then I’ve bought myself probably another four or five (so far) as fillers for my various Amazon orders to get that free shipping business (I’m such a sucker) and am this morning making notes about which Jo Goodmans I want to buy and am actively looking around for a new paranormal series to, uh, take a bite out of while I wait for Kresley Cole’s January release.
I’m turning 40 on December 31 and I thought a great way to celebrate would be to buy myself 40 books from my wish list. I don’t know if that’s actually going to happen, but I’ll get as close as time and financial responsibility allow.
Dec 08, 2008 @ 14:20:40
You forgot to include bookstore gift certificate. My husband is a reader, and I always give him a B&N gift certificate… and he already bought one for me.
Dec 08, 2008 @ 16:11:51
I will be buying (have bought one) books. One for a friend who is obsessed with college basketball called The Last Shot by Darcy Frey. Darcy spent about a year with four teens in Coney Island, New York who are trying to make the jump from high school to college basketball. His writing is beautiful and the story is really wonderful (though not positive). The book is just so heartfelt–I’d recommend it to anyone interested in college basketball or people who like to read nonfiction. The book soon becomes only a little about the boys lives (one of the boys is Stephen Marbury) and a lot about these boys’ lives and the struggles of poverty. Lovely and just the kind of cheery book I like to give for Christmas.
The other book is to a friend who loves the Bloomsbury Group. The local college art museum is having an exhibit on Bloomsbury so I bought her the exhibit book.
My best Christmas gift ever went to my husband a couple years ago. I got him a personalized “book of the month club.” I gave him two books with a little letter about the book of the month club and a calendar. He got a book a month for a whole year. Sometimes he got more than one book, like the first three Foundation Series books and the complete set of Sherlock Homes–the nice annotated one that came out a couple years ago. He loved it and still talks about how awesome it was.
Dec 09, 2008 @ 07:45:46
Hey, put him into his own romance novel with you. YourNovel.com has 25 books that you can put him into where you are the stars. How romantic is
that?