What books are you asking for this Christmas?

I agree to an extent-after all, why not just pop money in a card?

However, I make a list of books that I would like and my husband chooses from that, so there is still a surprise factor and me and the pleasure of choosing for him.

Nightwalking: Four Journeys into Britain After Dark by John Lewis-Stempel- my son has ordered this one for me.

Paranormal Bristol by Selena Wright

Sorry, but I disagree.

1.If a family exchanges presents, that's usually because they keep in touch. If they keep in touch, then it's the giver's "job" to note what people might like.

2.Gifts shouldn't necessarily be what the person already wants, as the person could buy that himself. Gifts can also be, wonderfully, something new, something unexpected, something to push the recipient off well-worn paths. I was delighted to turn a non-reader into a reader by carefully giving him books over the course of a year or two that I was pretty sure would interest him, even though he would have said previously that he would neither want nor appreciate books.

3.It's relatively easy to buy gifts that can be returned or exchanged.

Personally, I consider that asking for a present not only is offensive, but destroys any pleasure for the giver.

I tend to ask for art or history books as they aren't something that I would just pop in and buy, as they're usually too expensive to justify as an impulse purchase.

A lovely Christmas present I received last year was a 12 month subscription to Persephone books. It was bought for me and they then sent me a catalogue to choose from.

I agree with a PP who mentioned box sets. I have the James Herriot series on my list and if they don't come in a box, I'm sure the donor will put them in one!

Place marking for inspiration.

If you like non-fiction, I have just read a fantastic book:

The Roaring Girls by Holly Kyte

The Ink Black Heart for me, too. I love Cormoran Strike 💗

I've asked for the lovely illustrated editions of

HP Order of the Phoenix
The Northern Lights
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass

Ambertronix I always feel like a book token is a two fold pleasure. The pleasure you get when receiving it and think about what to buy, and then the pleasure of spending it.

Ive asked for book tokens rather than specific books because part of the pleasure for me is browsing the bookshops. Peter Swanson, Lisa Jewell and Richard Osman all have books coming out next year so i would rather save my money for these and prolong the pleasure, meaning i get presents in march, july and september instead of just this December.

I'd love a few of the titles from the recent British Library Women Writers series. These are forgotten works of significance from the 1910s to the 60s, representing what their curators think is some of the best middlebrow fiction of the period. This point is irrelevant really, but they're in very attractive binding too!

I've found a wonderful second-hand bookshop which is a real treasure trove of finds: amongst them a full set of George Eliot in Blackwoods Edinburgh binding. As expected, this is worth quite a sum but they also have some amazing, obscure works of philosophy, mysticism and history as well as fiction. I need a whole day to get round it!

Alice in wonderland.

When Women Were Dragons - Kelly Barnhill
The Sixth Extinction- Elizabeth Kolbert
Woman Eating - Claire Kohda
The Decade in Tory - Russell Jones
The Love Songs of W E B Du Bois - Honoree Fannone Jeffers
The Bullet That Missed - Richard Osman
Hagitude - Sharon Blackie
Wrong Place, Wrong Time - Gillian McAllister
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin
This Time Tomorrow - Emma Straub

I would be delighted with any of these.

I've just finished The Inkblack Heart. Fabulous.

On my list I put:

The Seven Moons of Mali Almeida
Shehan Karunatilaka
Any Ian Mcewan books I haven't yet read & the books by Gaby Logan & Gary Neville.

I keep forgetting what's on my list, but one is The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

And another is,

The Ink Black Heart by JK Rowling

Yeah, box sets are fab. I got DD1 a box set of all the Famous Five books because I was so envious of my cousin having them!

pleasure. The very occasional pleasure that should have said

Ah I always like threads like this at Christmas!

I can't think of a specific book this year, and always hope someone will come up with a brilliant choice I've never heard of!

I had a massive nostalgia rush the other day. Haven't thought about this in ages but remember (the very occasional) of getting a box set of books, when I was a child. Especially liking the box cover design and loving the way the volumes would fit (glide) perfectly into the box !

I think you may be in the minority

The Fall of Boris Johnson, Sebastián Payne.
The Prosecutor, Nazir Afzal
Never Too Late, Sally Rigby. The next in a series I’ve been reading. I love a PI.

The raven's nest by Sarah Thomas
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Tomorrow and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Lost & Found: Reflections on Grief, Gratitude and Happiness by Kathryn Schulz
Hagitude by Sharon Blackie
41-love a memoir by Scarlett Thomas
Thunderstone by Nancy Campbell
Once upon a tome by Oliver Darkshire
Bibliomania by Robin Ince

My husband will pick a few and which ones will be the surprise.

I would love to ask my husband for Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men, but I don't think he'll be impressed.

I will buy it for myself lol

I was brought up to consider it tacky and ill bred to go out of my way to criticise people who are just minding their own business.

The world has changed. Families live far apart and don't know each other as well as they used to, Christmas is increasingly consumerist, many of us already have more than we need and don't want to waste more of the world's resources giving and receiving gifts that are not wanted and won't be appreciated. Yet others are struggling and would rather get something they need than a luxury they don't.

So different families approach this in different ways,some have 'no gifts for adults' (always rather unfair for those who don't have children), some have secret santa and a budget limit and some of us with families who refuse to do either of those we have wish lists of books so we get a token gift we actually want.

(I am also tacky - but I get things I actually want and not mindless crap, so there's that)