Sunday, December 20, 2009

12 Days of Christmas Guest Post: Sarah Beth Durst, author of Ice

I am always a tiny bit disappointed to receive a present that isn't book-shaped. And if you give me a present that's book-shaped but isn't a book... that's just cruel. My husband has been known to wrap books in oversize boxes so I'll be surprised, like the time he gave me the entire Andrew Lang fairy book collection wrapped all in a single box. (It was while I was writing Into the Wild, my book about fairy-tale characters in the real world.) That was AWESOME.

All the best presents I've ever gotten have been books. Once, my mom gave me a second set of David Eddings's Belgariad because I'd worn out the spines of my original set. (These were the books that hooked me on fantasy.) She'd also given me the first set. Not many presents you can get twice from the same person and have them be special both times.

I love to give books as presents too. Some of my favorite gifts to give this year:

For babies/toddlers... Blue Moo by Sandra Boynton, Lullabies by Fiona Watt and Elena Temporin, The Three Pigs by David Wiesner, and When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Boach.

For kids... Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George and the Unicorn Chronicles series by Bruce Coville..

For YAs (i.e. teens or adults with good taste)... Dreamdark series by Laini Taylor, Rampant by Diana Peterfreund, Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter, and The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan.

For grown-ups... the Confessions of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom series by Julie Kenner and the Retriever series by Laura Anne Gilman.

And of course lots of people in my family are getting copies of my latest book, Ice. :)

As for those people who don't like books... I haven't the faintest idea what to get them. Socks??

4 comments:

Natalie said...

I wish my family read more often. If I got them a book for Christmas I think they'd shoot me. I'm definitely the oddball! But I am able to buy books for my friends for Christmas, because a lot of them read.

Socks are always good. Practical, right? :) Then again, who wants a practical gift?

Unknown said...

Hi Sarah :)
Thank you for sharing here today.
I love giving books for presents.
Luckily my family are readers and my children have caught my love of books. I remember one Christmas I gave my mother the entire John Jakes "Family" series and my sister Terry Goodkind's entire "Seeker" series.
:)
Merry Christmas!

Jodie said...

That's another recommendation for 'Rampant' then, I really must get on that. I've decided to try and give books as gifts to people I wouldn't normally hand them out to this year and see how that goes.

Laura Anne said...

My folks gave me a gift certificate so I gave myself Ice for Channukah. Sat down and read it last night -- wonderful as always! Now, where's the next book...?

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