£120 to spend on books, what would you buy?

[nice2BeNice]

Looking for recommendations please, to spend £120 on books for a 13yr old

My 13yr old daughter loves reading, reads mostly fiction and history, politics. She has a bunch of book tokens to spend (collected over time); they come to around £120

I am reluctant for it to be spent on one of those box sets or such that don't get read again. As most of the tokens were awarded as prizes, I want her to buy something that she will read and keep/reread.

Any recommendations ?

You could consider investing in a few hard-backed books such as an atlas, an English dictionary, a thesaurus, the Oxford Companion to English Literature, National Geographic Ultimate Visual History of the World. They would give her her own reference library to take her through GCSEs and A levels.

Any recommendations?

Yes, don't police what she spends her own vouchers on. Why does she need to reread for it to be a worthwhile purchase?

Good point about not policing DD's choice. In a similar situation, I went to the bookshop with DD and made suggestions, but the choices were hers.

Wouldn't the answer be for her to go to a bookshop and have a good browse and buy what takes her fancy? She doesn't need to spend them all in one go, she could just do it as and when, when she sees a book she wants to buy. The important thing would be to make sure they're not lost, and she has photos of them with the code and PIN in her Google/Apple account so they can be replaced if they are lost.

Plus there's no rush. They don't expire (well it says that they expire after 8 years, but can be replaced) and the Book Tokens scheme is unlikely to go bust.

This isn't what you're asking, but an excellent lesson would be that just because you have a lot of money momentarily doesn't mean you have to rush to spend it all.

That said, she's approaching the age where she could start on good literature, so I hope she doesn't waste it on children's books.

Well firstly let her buy what she wants

Secondly that it really

Hmm if it were money vouchers and you didn't want it wasted on plastic crap then I think I'd understand more...... but it's books, and book vouchers - if she gets some random books and only reads them once then so what? She's still had the joy of picking and reading them?

You can't tell what's going to be a favourite until you read it anyway and she's probably too young to appreciate a special folio society style copy of a favourite book.

I'd just let her loose in the bookshop and just encourage her to pick carefully cos once the vouchers are gone then they're gone.

Personally I love going into bookshops and looking at what they have. So I would just take her into a lovely shop and let her pick her own. No better way to inspire her then to let her browse and pick what stands out to her.

I think she should spend her money on what she wants to spend it on. My son read for pleasure up to the age of 12, and I'm not sure that at 17 he's finished a book since. I hope he'll rediscover reading at some point. If your daughter keeps reading for pleasure through her teens and into adulthood, that might be more valuable for her than the specific books she buys now, and I think that love of reading can be nurtured through anything.

I'm not sure I'd recommend spending the money on large/expensive reference volumes in hard copy at this point. I have some, a mixture of presents and inherited items and bookclub bargains from years ago, but they're a bit difficult to keep with you if you're living in rented housing and having to move frequently (I was lucky to be able to buy at 29, with help, and to do a loft extension nearly 8 years ago (18 years after buying), and I don't anticipate ever being able to afford to move) and my reference library mostly collects dust. So much easier to look up online! Also, a lot of paid for reference sources are available to consult online through public libraries free, for example a lot of Oxford University Press volumes - you just need a library card for a service that subscribes, and then you log in, and presumably then users will be able to look up something which is updated and can possibly cover more/contain links.

If she continues to read for pleasure, you can give her book tokens for Christmas/birthdays, and perhaps she'll win more prizes. Or you could get her things like an atlas or other illustrated reference book, a nice English dictionary, language dictionaries if she studies languages.