Hello from snowy Vermont! Josie and I had our first completely relaxing day in months, and it felt wonderfully decadent to have a leisurely brunch, hang out with the dogs, and do nothing more strenuous than make cookie dough and write thank-you notes. Ahhhh.
It’s not often my family can completely surprise me with a book-related gift I’ve never seen before, but my sister outdid herself this year by finding a Booksi, which is an iPhone charger made from a book. The one she chose for me was Houghton’s handsome green-and-blue hardcover of The Hobbit with J.R.R. Tolkien’s original cover art and design — the exact version our mom read to us when we were young. This was such a fantastic present! It will sit on my bedside table, acting as charger and stand for my phone so unobtrusively you wouldn’t even realize it isn’t a book unless you caught sight of the slim white USB cord exiting the pages.
My new Booksi!
My sister discovered it in the Rich Neeley Designs shop on Etsy.com. That website is such a great source of book-related arts and crafts!
The other booky gift was a happy flying pig painting made for me by a student from my last picture-book-writing workshop. I was so touched by the thoughtfulness of this painting and its fun details:
The book the pig is reading?
And the little tag at the bottom reads:
Thanks, Kristen Littlefield, for the painting, and thanks, Tiff, for the Booksi!And now to settle in with some of the books I wrapped for myself (since few dare to give booksellers actual books)….
What books and book-related gifts were you delighted to find under your tree or at your Chanukah celebration?
Your fans want to know what books you put under the tree, please! Thanks for a great blog!
Just as curious about the books under your tree, I received a copy of Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. Woo hoo!
That sounds like a lovely, relaxing day! Our holidays have been very hectic and busy, so a quiet day in snowy Vermont sounds wonderful to me.
The Booksi looks so cool! I have never even heard of a charger like that – great gift.
And you have reminded me that I have not yet posted about the books my family and I received for Christmas! I will go do that today.
Enjoy your peaceful solitude!
Sue
Book By Book
As a librarian, I didn’t get any books under my tree though I put lots of books under the tree for others. Hmmm…let’s see, autographed copies of Tony La Russa’s One Last Strike was a big success with my Cardinal fans, dad got a personalized copy of Ridley Pearson’s Risk Agent, and my oldest daughter was excited to receive an autographed copy of Janet Evanovich’s Wicked Business. The younger daughter who lives in CA got Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and Libba Bray’s The Diviners. My husband and history buff was pleased with an autographed copy of Philip White’s Our Supreme Task about Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech. The grandchildren were the big winners with Oh No by Candace Fleming, Kitten Tale by Eric Rohmann, Go Go Grapes and If You’re Hoppy by April Pulley Sayre, Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Fleming, Sky Boys by Deborah Hopkinson and Batman by Consentino. I still have lots of books packed away for giving throughout the year.