Holiday shopping season is entering crunch time — and with supply chain issues and shipping delays, the window for ordering gifts is pretty much closed. Luckily, a world of perfect presents awaits inside every independent bookstore, and the Boston area is blessed with several. I phoned six brick-and-mortar shops this week and asked them what makes a book the perfect gift, and how to choose the best title for each recipient.
“Books make the best gifts always, as they hold timeless treasures within their pages; whole worlds of wonder, great flashes of insight, vision, perspective,” said Lisa Gozacht of Brookline Booksmith. “Books have the power to astonish and enlighten, to take one’s breath away, not once but again and again and again.”
That enduring quality — especially when giving a book to a child — was cited as well by Leonard Egerton of Frugal Books, in Roxbury. “A child reading a book is timeless. They can always read it; they can have it the rest of their life if they take care of it.”
“How much time do you have?” asked Kathy Crowley of Belmont Books when I posed the question to her. She limited herself to four reasons to give books as gifts: one, they build community, especially when reading with or to others; two, reading is “a proven stress reliever”; three, “they’re easy to wrap!” (a point mentioned by many of the booksellers I spoke with); and four, “if you buy local, you’re supporting your local economy. There are so many great independent bookstores in the Boston area so it’s very easy to shop locally and find great books to give.”
For Kate Layte of Papercuts JP, in Jamaica Plain, reading is just one of those perfect seasonal activities. “It’s the perfect thing to do this winter, find some time to read,” she said.
The variety of books is what makes them such a perfectly personal gift, said Dina Mardell of Porter Square Books, in Cambridge and Boston. “There is probably a greater variety of books than of anything else you can buy someone. So it’s easy to show you care as you can tailor the gift to each person.”
“Especially at a store with a good selection, you can almost always find something that’s either specifically to the point or related to the point, even if it’s somebody you don’t know that well,” said Mark Lamphier of Harvard Book Store in Cambridge. That’s particularly true, he added, “if you have a well-versed staff.”
A well-read bookseller will really listen to your description of your intended recipient — whether a beloved friend of a new in-law — and make the perfect recommendation, better than any algorithm.
“Every independent bookstore has carefully curated their books to be the perfect selection for their community,” said Layte, adding that booksellers are more than happy to find just the right book.
“Often people will come into our store with a vague sense of what they want, and we can usually help them find a really good fit,” said Crowley.
“We ask questions about the person,” said Egerton. “It’s not one-book-fits-all. And we’ve been good at that. We haven’t gotten any complaints from any of the customers who have bought books as gifts.”
Kate Tuttle edits the Globe's Books section. You can reach her at kate.tuttle@globe.com