Christmas gift recommendations are one thing, but what if I took you shopping for all things bookish? In the space of half-an-hour, we can visit five unique shops and spend as little or as much as we like without even buying a book.
1. Paddywax. This clever Library line from Paddywax features famous authors and their quotes. With a range of prices and sizes, author candles include Shakespeare, Emerson, Steinbeck, Tolstoy, Dickens, Alcott, Austen, and Poe. One added bonus is that Paddywax offers student discounts too.
2. Storymatic Studios. Have you heard the story about the brain surgeon who married an amateur boxer with amnesia? Tell a story together with the Storymatic Game. It includes a box of story prompts originally created by writer Brian David Mooney for a fiction workshop at Marlboro College in Vermont. Over time, his students pestered him to make copies of his cards, so they could use them at home with their friends and families. He finally relented, and now the Storymatic Game can spin a happy ending in your home as well. Mr. Mooney has since created a Kids version of Storymatic in addition to the games Rememory and Synapsis. His website includes these products and instructional videos.
3. Uncommon Goods. Every library lover can use more bookends for their office or home or really any room of the house. Uncommon Goods and their artisans showcase more than twenty unique designs like Majestic Forest Bookends, Hero Bookends, and the classic Recycled Bourbon Barrel Bookends.
4. The Uncommon Green. Speaking of bourbon, the Etsy shop, The Uncommon Green, designed a collection titled Literature Rocks. Buy one singular glass or an entire handpicked set. Two dozen 11-ounce glasses with titles and first-page texts of works like Hamlet, Jane Eyre, the Constitution, Les Miserables, and most delightfully, the 21st Amendment.
5. Out of Print is one of the best shops for all things book fashion, plus it supports literacy by donating books to needy communities every time you make a purchase. T-shirts for young and old feature famous book titles and quotations, the classic library-card-patterned socks, coffee mugs, and my favorite, enamel pins of tiny books.
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The featured image is courtesy of Pixabay.
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