First, let’s state the obvious: There is no better gift to give a reader than a book. Ditto for fair-weather readers, those friends and family members who only have time to read a few books a year.  

Give them a novel so irresistible that they disappear on Christmas Day and come up for air on New Year’s Eve. 

But, if books are always on your gift-giving list and you’re looking for something else that, upon the unwrapping elicits an “Oh,” of surprised pleasure, you’ve come to the right place.

Here are the best bookish gifts I wish someone would give me! 

Forlorn without a piping cup of coffee in the morning? Chipped all of those MPR membership mugs? 

Then the reader in your life needs a hefty ceramic mug from Bad Bananas that says “Bookmarks Are for Quitters” and a polished brass bookmark from Poketo to keep those pages crisp and pristine. 

Sometimes it takes a kind of bat signal to know you are among kindred reading spirits in a crowded room. Give your booklover an enamel pin made by Out of Print so that everyone within range will get the message.  

You can choose from book cover art to Edgar Allen Poe and his raven to sassy statements like  “F ight Evil, Read Books.” That one adorns my favorite travel backpack.

When was the last time you received a postcard with a delightfully cryptic message on it? How about a box of 100 classic book cover postcards from Penguin?  

Word has it that when Allen Lane founded Penguin Books in the mid 1930s, he wanted bold, simple design. 

Today the orange and white covers with the black font still hold up. The postcards include covers for Raymond Chandler, Hemingway, P.G. Wodehouse and the Brontes.

How about the young book lover in your life? If it’s good enough for Oprah, it’s good enough for me!  She chose these “Little People, Big Dreams” curated boxed sets of themed books.

Ever at a party where the chips have gone soggy and the sparkling chatter has gone flat?

Book Riot, one of my go-tos for what’s trending in reading, publishes a fun deck of cards called “Lit Chat: Conversation Starters About Books and Life.”  

Tuck one of these in your book-lover’s stocking and she’ll never be high and dry for witty conversation.

Finally, go all in and present your book-lover with a tin of homemade, book-shaped cookies. Buy the cookie cutter from SweetPrints Inc on Etsy.

— Kerri Miller | MPR News