How To Read A Book Lover's Christmas List 2014

A helping hand for friends and family who are thinking about what to get their book loving friends for Christmas. (This includes me by the way, I will be sending this link to my family...)

Most of my Christmas lists look like this:

- A Book.
- That series of books I like.
- That new book by that author.
- A collection of classic books.
- If you're still stuck for ideas, perhaps a nice book.

I can see that this could be confusing and difficult to interpret for other people, but here is the interpreted Christmas list for a book lover in 2014.

- A Book.

This year the book at the top of my list is The Minaturist by Jessie Burton. It has been a lined with The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, so it would be a great gift for any reader who tackled THT at school.

- That series of books I like.

A little tougher, if you cant remember anything that they have read. Also can come in a little pricy to buy a whole series. If you don't want to turn detective every time you see their bookshelves, I'd go for something simple. One of the things on my list is a cover for my Kindle a trendy designer one that reflects my personality. That way they can enjoy their favourite books and still love your gift every day. 

-That new book by that author. 

Approach with caution. For a real book lover, chances are they already have every new release for the past 6 months. check out the pre-orders section of amazon and pre-order for January. That way they get the gift twice! In the mean time, combine their love of books with their inevitable love of hot beverages and get this mug: 

- A collection of classic books

Something I have learnt this year is that even if you have read them all a thousand times, nothing beats having a new suped-up edition of your favourite classic. 

If you're determined not to buy a book try one of these gadgets for book lovers. 

Why I'm Not a Writer

There is an essay in the Writers and Artists Yearbook 2012 (Bloomsbury) by Alison Baverstock called Is There a Book in You? It is a very thought provoking essay:

I graduated from Bath Spa University, where the English and Creative Writing staff are some of the best in the country. Spa's MA writing course has a reputation for producing a long list of published authors alumni.  So - budding writers flock to the West Country.  My classes were filled with very talented people, amazing writers with potential basically oozing out of them.

I went to a uni acclaimed for producing authors, I did a creative writing course, and I'm not an author. Why?

I went to university with my GREAT NOVEL unwritten.  I had no big idea to give, really. I already knew that that feeling I saw in my classmates, the great work that just needed to come out of them wasn't in me. I loved my Literature modules, carrying on where I left off A levels with MORE reading, and taught by some fantastic tutors. Creative Writing was my fun. My cathartic 6 hours off from reading (and everything else) to write.

Lecture 1 of my second year I had one of the most simultaneously depressing and inspiring lectures of my uni career. Talking to this tutor was like being hit over the head with your favourite book. You love it, but it hurts! He told us to basically forget the dream of making a living out of writing. That raised some hackles, I can tell you! He probably pushed one or two of the people in the room to really focus on their goals and prove him wrong. But I never wanted to be a writer, and what he did over the next two years was give us some excellent examples of alternative routes that would still keep us in contact with books. I now realise that that is all I've ever really wanted. 

That tutor and many others drilled a sense of hard work and the importance of reading into me.  I have never met a more well read man in my life. He ended up lending me three pivotal books as source material for my dissertation, that he just happened to have! He used to make us read our work out loud to the class so that we could hear how the writer intended it to sound. And he made us comment on people's work, out loud and to their faces.  If I didn't know it before, I knew it after every one of my creative writing seminars.

I'm not a writer because I am an editor.

New Poem

I've been feeling inspired recently. Largely with the help of reading more poetry, fantastic inspiring poetry. I have found that my writing usually relates to a real life experience. I love that because it means that every poem reminds me of a time or person in my life that is important. But I have a better appreciation for the 'imagined' side of poetry.

Still I'm not there yet, so here is my first poem in a while. 'Falling' it's the quiet feeling of falling asleep and falling in love.

Falling

Behind black-out blinds
The motorway growls in the night.
The blue and red flicker of an emergency 
draw an outline of you.

I hand you my book
with the page bent down
and you take a final leaning step
into bed.

I say goodnight 
with a kiss on your half-found mouth.