Are you ready for Valentine’s Day? The Mystery Review Crew has a few ideas on the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for the book lover in your life. While the origins of Valentine’s Day are another story, the modern-day celebration usually leaves us all scrambling, searching for the just-right gift, both thoughtful and somewhat romantic, for our special person to enjoy. Yet, it seems we always revert to the time-honored classics of a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates. Not that there’s anything wrong with flowers and chocolates. Still, sometimes it’s fun to switch it up, shift gears, and get an extra special gift they won’t see coming.
The Crew has broken our gift guide into five distinct sections:
So here’s our Unique Gift Guide for the best Valentine’s gifts to surprise your favorite reader.
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Great Valentine’s Day Gifts For The Book Lover In Your Life
Unique Book Collections = A lifelong love of books
If your special someone is a book lover, what better way to say “I love you” than with a beautiful special edition of their favorite tale? For many book lovers, their favorite book could be one of the “classics”; think Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, or Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, or for a mystery lover, maybe Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, or perhaps their favorite Nancy Drew book. (Is that considered a classic now?)
Unique books we’ve enjoyed gazing at:
This classic collection set from LitJoy Crate includes some perfect hardcover books that scream romance, including Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights.
Or suppose you’d rather go the paperback route. In that case, we’d suggest looking at the Harper Collins editions of these (plus many more) of the romantic classics.
We also thought this edition of Love poems and Love quotes from Barnes and Noble was beautifully done. A perfect gift for a person needing words of affirmation!
“Love Poems celebrates love in its many forms with ninety-seven poems that span six centuries, from the work of Dante to the poetry of William Butler Yeats. It includes selections from many of the most celebrated poets in world literature, including William Shakespeare, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edgar Allan Poe, and Emily Dickinson.”
For a mystery lover, the classic of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is beautifully done by the Folio Society.
One of the most celebrated Hercule Poirot novels, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, is presented as a glorious Folio Society edition illustrated by Andrew Davidson.
The Foil Society even has a few limited editions that may be of interest, like Casino Royal by Ian Fleming, Killing Floor by Lee Child, or Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
And last but not least, the Barnes and Noble special editions of almost every classic ever! And you can often catch a good sale, buying one and getting one 50% off. They range from childhood classics to mystery, romance, classic literature, horror, poetry, comedy, and even science fiction, truly a good book option for every book lover.
Book-themed Experiences:
This one can be adjusted easily to where you are located. It’s a matter of the right place, right time.
- Booking a Weekend getaway to a cozy cabin with a private library, giving your special someone free rein to read as much as they want.
- Helping your bookish love rearrange their bookshelves. This idea is the perfect way to show the person who needs quality time that you love them.
- Check to see if there are any bookish-themed cafes or restaurants in your area, we found several in Texas by simply Googling “Literary Themed Cafes/Restaurants in Texas”.
- Buy them a ticket (maybe even a hotel and flights) to meet their favorite author, or for them to go to a reader convention.
- Take them on a new book buying spree, otherwise known as a bookstore date. Give them an amount to spend in a bookstore, and they’ll be happy (if you want to live dangerously, don’t set a limit).
- Sometimes, the best gift you can give is free. Let your book lover spend the day in bed (or wherever they like to read) and help reduce distractions for them.
- Bookish games TableTopics Book Club – 135 Questions Cards Perfect for Book Lovers might be a wonderful gift to spark questions, its a thoughtful gift that lets your valentine know you care about their interests.
Literary-inspired Décor and merch:
You’ve probably seen some of the bookish gifts out there already. At the MRC, we don’t believe there is such a thing as too many bookish gifts. We’ve had a lot of fun decorating our shelves with:
1. Book-inspired candles. Many beautiful and fragrant candles are on the market and can be found on Etsy or Amazon. However, some of our favorites are from Lamplighter Literary Life Creations, a small business with wonderful cozy scented candles with very long burn times.
2. A new Bookshelf organization tool, like bookends, that will help the book nerds in your life more easily showcase their favorite books. Bonus points if it is themed around their favorite genre. i.e., maybe dragons for fantasy, magnifying glasses or sleuths for mystery/thriller lovers and maybe one with a love poem or heart on it for the romance lover.
3. Bookish signs that will capture the imagination and showcase the books. We like ones that are relatable, have quotes, or make us smile. They are easy to customize and add special touches specific to your special reader.
4. A romantic glass rose to decorate their shelves is a beautiful gift, especially when paired with a romantic card. A gift idea that will certainly bring a smile to their face.
5. Book-shaped furniture or décor, we’ve found some neat bookish vases, book-shaped lights, and bookish book organization cups. We suggest a new bookshelf if you need additional brownie points.
DIY Book Crafts
A gift that keeps on giving! A great gift is often one we take time to enjoy. That is especially true of bookish gifts that help decorate our shelves and reaffirm our love of reading. Gifts of this type can be further broken down into two categories. One is where you give a gift that can be made to your bookish love, and two gift ideas you can make for your bookish love.
They can make:
3. Printed/Painted pictures on old book pages. Here is one of my favorites for inspiration from Pride and Prejudice.
4. Book Stamps/ Embosser. These are so useful to go through all your books and label them!
5. Give them something to do featuring Books! A Flower Bookshelf Embroidery Kit on Etsy
You can make:
1. Bookmarks. A leather bookmark, paper bookmark, and a metal bookmark are all easy good ones to start with, however, the options are pretty endless, I’ve linked out to easy to follow instructions for all the options I mentioned.
2. Book Pinwheel. This one is fun to do with old book pages (or if you can’t bear to tear up old books, use scrapbook paper). This easy craft from Meegan Makes is simple to follow and would be a fun decoration for any book shelf.
3. Decorative book feathers. They are a fun bookish addition that a bookworm can use literally anywhere. Home Stories A-Z does a great job showing how easy it is to make them!
4. Book Letters. These are one of my favorite options to make, they are easily personalized and will last forever. I found this tutorial from Little Things Bring Smiles to be very helpful when I made them.
***Advanced Option: A Book Bouquet
This option is not that hard to make. You can check out a DIY article and video how to on Travelers Wife 4 Life. Its a great way to combine the classic gift of flowers with something totally unique to your book lover.
Bookish Culinary Delights
For this one, we found a great article in the Washington Post with some fantastic-sounding recipes to try and replicate. If that’s not up your alley, though, here are some fun bookish items you can buy to go along with some great books.
1. Chocolate Chip Cookies: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
2. Cheddar Cheese Queso & Chips: Cheddar off Dead by Korina Moss
3. Their Favorite Coffee: No Filter by Heather Day Gilbert
4. An Ice Cream Sunday: Spoon to be Dead by Dana Mentink
5. Tacos: Tacos for Two by Betsy St. Amant
6. Comfort food: Comfort Foods by Kimberly Fish
Bonus: Bookish Tech Gadgets
One can never have enough new gadgets correct? Correct. So here are a few we have and actually use!
1. A Kindle. I use the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition because of the battery life (at least 9 weeks of daily use without having to charge it) and the screen size. Or if they already have a Kindle, you could get them a Kindle Unlimited subscription (yes, you can give KU subscriptions as gifts!)
2. Kindle Page Turner is handy to have so you can read hands free!
3. Booklight (with three ambient colors!)
4. A Kindle or Bookstand holder with a spot for your drink.
5. Audible Subscription + Headphones (We have Shokz Openrun for wearing while out and about, AirPods Pro for around the house, and these Sony ones for when we want to focus)
