It’s almost always a surefire bet you will please book lovers with the wrapped and beribboned present of their next great read, but there are ample other ways to endorse your shared love of literature and enhance their reading experience. Since we are poised on the brink of the gift-exchange season, here are a few suggestions for doing just that.
Light up their lives and their nighttime absorption in that can’t-put-it-down thriller with an itty-bitty reading lamp that conveniently clamps itself onto the top of the book. You’ll find samples all over the internet, but my personal longtime favorite is the Mighty Bright MiniFlex 2, a dandy little device I’ve owned for years and have put to use regularly, both on my reading material and atop the open music book on my piano. This lightweight lamp with the flexible gooseneck runs on a couple of CR2032 batteries, makes a reliable traveling companion and keeps the peace between couples when one wants to sleep and the other does not. I bought mine at an independent bookstore, but you can also find it in five colors on Amazon for a mere $10.39.
Nothing goes better with an absorbing book than a steaming mug of hot tea, coffee, cocoa — or perhaps some mulled wine. And it’s even better when the mug itself puts you in the reading mood. Temu.com offers a stalwart-looking Library Bookshelf Mug, decorated with colorful nooks full of stacked books and charming tchotchkes, on sale at this writing for $12.47 (down from $19.49) for the 15-ounce mug. The smaller 11-ounce size is just $8.97 (down from $16.99).
You can keep your library shelf in good order with the slim but sturdy Librarian Bookend, a metallic lady stretching up to place a book just so in exactly the place it needs to be. She doesn’t have the capacity to shush you, but she won’t slip from her other duties — she’s tiptoeing up from a silicone-based stand. Find her in the Signals catalog or on signals.com for $16.95. And why not give her a like-minded workmate — order two!
A padded cloth covering for your current favorite book is both a comfort to hold and a protection from prying eyes if you happen to be engrossed in “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” or something even racier. There’s a woman named Dorothy in Monrovia in Southern California who says she is combining her passions for sewing and reading on her website, which advertises her colorful accessories in all kinds of designs and in sizes small, medium and large at prices from $19.95 to $29.95, most with colored ribbon placeholders. She’s a presence on Instagram and Etsy as well, but you’ll find her whole panoply of handmade offerings and answers to your questions at aphroditebookclub.com. The design called “Garden Library” ranks high on the list of her most frequently ordered items.
One of the more unusual items at the aptly named UncommonGoods.com is something it might never have occurred to readers that they would come to rely on. But many of those who have popped the $50 for the Book Nook Reading Valet seem to love it, posting pictures on the site demonstrating how and where they are using it. It’s a triangular contraption made of attractive acacia wood that lets you upend the tome you are currently reading over its apex, preserving your place in the book. Its stand holds a place for your reading glasses and a cup or a glass of your beverage of choice, and between the two sides of the triangle and out of your distracting sight, there’s a handy a spot for your cell phone. Inscribed on the front of the valet is the admonishment “Save My Spot” and on the back, it reads “To Be Continued.”
OK, so you’ve got your Book Nook Valet at the ready, with your glasses and a Library Bookshelf Mug full of something delicious. What more could you possibly need? Keep the chill even further at bay with the Library Quilted Throw, a hand-stitched, all-cotton patchwork blanket that has a coordinated print on its reverse side. It measures about 50-by-65 inches and will submit to a gentle machine wash when needed. Find it at $20 off its regular $159 price right now at signals.com.
Strictly speaking, this last suggestion — one for true bibliophiles — is a book, of sorts. The British Library, in association with Rizzoli publishers, has just released a full-size facsimile of the famed Shakespeare’s First Folio to mark its 400th anniversary. First collated and published by two of his friends seven years after Shakespeare’s death, the folio brings together 36 of the Bard’s plays, ordering them in the now familiar categories of “Comedies, Histories & Tragedies.” Of the 700 copies originally produced (individually, and no two copies are the same), only a little more than 200 of them remain, five of them housed in the British Library. Its original publication was a true achievement for which every Shakespeare fan should be grateful. Without it, 18 of his plays, including “The Tempest” and “Macbeth,” would have been forever lost. You can find the 923-page “Shakespeare’s First Folio: 400th Anniversary Facsimile Edition” for $135 at rizzoliusa.com and many independent bookstores. Amazon (of course) is listing it for $13.50 less than that.
Page to screen: Headed to movie screens for a Christmas Day release date nine years after its original publication is author Daniel James Brown’s best-selling “The Boys in the Boat,” the true history of the hardscrabble rowing team from the University of Washington that overcame huge odds to beat, not only the elite crews on the East Coast, but the Italian and the Hitler-supported German teams competing in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Many of the nine members on the team were fighting desperate poverty and rowing so they could stay in college, a factor that impressed director George Clooney, who has said he had struggles of his own growing up in Kentucky. The film stars Joel Edgerton in the role of young Joe Rantz, the shy teenager kicked out of home by his father and stepmother whose grit, determination and perseverance propelled him through college and into a pivotal spot on the team that ultimately triumphed. Check out the movie trailer here.
In the pipeline: Britain’s John le Carré, long acknowledged the preeminent author of the modern espionage novel, died in December 2020, but George Smiley, his most iconic character (“The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”), is making his return. Coming at an unspecified date next fall from Penguin Random House’s Viking imprint is an unnamed new novel featuring Smiley, written by Nick Harkaway, the pen name of Nicholas Cornwell, the son of le Carré, whose real name was David Cornwell. Also an award-winning novelist, Harkaway works in the genres of detective noir and speculative fiction — “Gnomon,” “The Gone-Away World” and “Tigerman” are among his best-known works. The cerebral Smiley, conceived as an antidote to the James Bond type of spy, is the central character in nine le Carré novels and has been played onscreen by James Mason, Alec Guinness and Gary Oldman. The new novel takes place in the missing decade between the settings of “The Spy …” and “Tinker Tailor …”. Speaking to The Guardian, Harkaway, 50, admitted to some initial reluctance. “When we first talked about it, I was – let’s call it ‘hesitant’, which is as good a word as any for ‘terrified’,” he said. “But look at the world! Vladimir Putin was born in 1952; he grew up into the peak of the Cold War. We live in the ghost of the 20th century, the absolute core of the Smiley books. This is a story about how our world happens.” Both Harkaway and le Carré will be credited on the cover of the new novel.
Hooked on Books is a monthly column by Sue Gilmore on current literary buzz and can’t-miss upcoming book events. Look for it here every last Thursday of the month.