Book Blog

Weekly Favorites #27

Hey friends!

It’s the far-off sound of an airplane hidden somewhere in the cloudless sky, Sam Cote, back with another Weekly Favorites! Today is the first 70ºF day here in Syracuse, and the entire student body is lounging on the grass and under the trees on campus.

The Eye of the World

I started the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan! The first entry is The Eye of the World, and I’m enjoying it so far! This is one of the instances where I watched the show before reading the book, and I’m already seeing elements that were removed or changed in the adaptation. I’ve heard that the first few books of the series are heavily Tolkien-derivative, and that definitely aligns with my experience. I’m enjoying the level of description that Jordan uses, though I could see that becoming an annoyance later in the book/series. It feels good to settle back into a fantasy book, and feel the familiar weight of a mass-marked paperback again. My goal is to have the second book done by the time season 2 of the show comes out.

Ologies

It had been a while since I listened to one of my favorite podcasts, Ologies with Alie Ward, and I hopped back into it with the recent episode about Chickenology. I always seem to forget how much I enjoy it until I start again! There’s so much about chickens that I didn’t know, and just as much that I didn’t know I didn’t know.

Survivor: Redemption Island (S22)

Hailey and I finished up watching Season 22 of Survivor! Its nice to see what the end game can look like before we get further along in Season 44. I forgot how surgical the strategies need to be when only four or five players remain.

OA Promos

I’ve been hard at work making promotional materials for Orange Appeal’s spring invitational! AcaTHON is a collaboration event with SU’s OttoTHON to raise money for the patients and families at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital. We’ve got a setlist we’re proud of, and Main Squeeze as our guest group. Saturday 4/22 at 7:00PM!

Top 4 Sci-Fi Books With Nonbinary Characters

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Today is Trans Day of Visibility! As a recently “out” enby (nonbinary person), I wanted to share a few works of science fiction that speak to some aspect of my experience with gender. For clarity, some (not all) nonbinary people identify as Trans. This is often because their nonbinary gender identity is different from the one they were assigned at birth, and are therefore not cisgender. I’m still navigating what this means in the context of my own identity, but suffice it to say: nonbinary people can fall under the Trans Umbrella.

Science fiction has a rich history of exploring ideas that are taboo to discuss outside the realm of fiction. It’s been fertile ground for the discussion of QUILTBAG issues for decades bacause of the genre’s commitment to questions of difference: what are different worlds like? What are different kinds of humans like? What makes us human? The honest interrogation and radical theorizing that happens on pulpy pages has been invaluable to the public perception of gender-nonconforming (GNC) individuals (and other societal “others”).

A few important notes before we dive in: lots of nonbinary people dislike the fact that we’re most frequently depicted as robots and aliens. I see where they’re coming from. Real-world nonbinary people are living, breathing humans, not abstract thought experiments on fictional planets. In all of these books, it’s important to remember that the characters live in societies that are significantly different from our own (and often more tolerant). I’ll discuss the strengths and limitations of the nonbinary representation in each book.

Comment your favorites that I’ve missed!

The Murderbot Diaries

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells was one of my first literary exposures to a GNC protagonist. Murderbot is a construct– a cyborg-type entity that’s a patchwork of organic tissue, mechanical parts, and an AI mind. Murderbot is genderless and uses the provocative “it/its” pronouns, as it was designed to be a piece of security equipment and treated as an object by most humans (like other bots and constructs in this universe). Murderbot wasn’t designed to be sentient, but it is.

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”
All Systems Red, The Murderbot Diaries #1

After hacking its own governor module (the part of its brain that punishes it for bad behavior), Murderbot spends as many of its waking hours as possible watching tv shows and movies from the entertainment feed. It is incredibly introverted, and begrudgingly capable at keeping its human clients alive. It’s fun seeing Murderbot ponder humanity, and how it’s glad it isn’t a human. It would be quite anthropocentric to assume Murderbot wants to be!

Gender isn’t at the forefront of this narrative. I like reading books where GNC people can live their lives and seeing story-worlds where their right to do so isn’t challenged– Murderbot’s right to exist relies on other factors. While gender is an important secondary theme, Murderbot’s experiences are hard to compare with those of real-world nonbinary people. Books like this are better for exploring the individual’s internal experiences of gender than their social experiences, though the social experiences do play a role.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers is, in my opinion, Murderbot’s cozy counterpart. This book is best described as Utopian Solarpunk.

The story takes place on a moon called Panga, which is home to a society that has trancended industrialism. After gaining sentience centuries ago, the robots designed for manufacturing left to live in the forest, apart from human society.

The nonbinary protagonist, Sibling Dex, is a tea monk. They travel the human-settled parts of the world providing comfort to its residents in the form of hot tea, conversation and comfortable silence. Dex’s world is turned upside-down by the arrival of a robot– the first since they all left– with one question: “What do people need?”

“You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.”
A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Monk & Robot #1

Much of sci-fi’s real world power comes from encouraging readers to look past what “is” and into what “could be.” Both Sibling Dex and the robot, Mosscap, are GNC by our Earthly standards. Mosscap is genderless in the same way that murderbot is, and Dex is nonbinary in a world that doesn’t default to the gender binary like ours. The idea that one can be nonbinary without encountering social challenges as a result is one that can be hard to imagine, and Chambers is able to show us what such a reality might look like. Chambers invests so much care and dedication in the worldbuilding that its inclusivity feels natural and effortless.

On A Sunbeam

On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden is a graphic novel and free web comic that features one nonbinary character and a cast of women. We follow the protagonist, Mia, as we see her past and present unfold in alternating chapters. It is a story about first love, sapphic romance, high-stakes space adventures, and found family. The art is gorgeous, too.

The nonbinary character, Ell, is a part of the construction crew that Mia joins at the beginning of the book. Ell is nonverbal and incredibly talented at their job– electronics and wiring on the construction projects. Over the course of the story, we gradually learn more about Ell. It is quite fun to see their backstory come together!

This book is the epitome of cozy sci-fi. It was nice to settle down with the print version of this book and Astronomy, Vol. 1 by Sleeping At Last every night that I read it. I was lucky enough to get it from my library!

The Left Hand of Darkness

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin follows Genly Ai, a man from Earth, as he interacts with the residents of the planet Gethen. Gethenians are humans without gender– as Le Guin puts it, they’re “complete androgynes.” Written in 1969, this is a book that seems well ahead of its time. While imperfect, it is a staple of the LGBTQIA+ sci-fi canon– and for good reason.

“The Gethenians do not see one another as men or women. This is almost impossible for our imaginations to accept. After all, what is the first question we ask about a newborn baby?”
The Left Hand of Darkness, The Hainish Cycle

This book asks a few primary questions: what might a society without gender look like? How might a man from Earth interact with such a society? While these questions are present in the story, there is much more to explore beyond them. It is a story of political intrigue, wilderness survival, love and friendship. Throughout the book, the protagonist refers to all of the Gethenians by he/him pronouns. Le Guin made this chouce for a couple of reasons: Genly Ai is not a protagonist who is familiar with androgyny or gender-neutral pronouns. While narratively this makes sense, Le Guin has since said she would have used gender neutral pronouns if she had known better at the time (Is Gender Necessary? Redux (1976/1987)). In Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing, a transcription of Le Guin’s interviews with David Naiman, she discusses further how the use of a gender neutral “he” excludes other gender identities from discourse.

It’s a slow-paced book, written in the same era of sci-fi as Dune, so it isn’t as accessible as the other works on this list. That said, Le Guin has become one of my favorite authors of all time. Her prose is beautiful, and has a graceful command over language like no other writer.

Since the societies in The Left Hand of Darkness have no concept of gender, its characters have wildly different experiences with gender than non-fictional enbies. The Left Hand of Darkness is part of The Hainish Cycle– it is a series that doesn’t need to be read in order.

To Be Read

There are plenty of books with nonbinary representation that I haven’t read yet! Please comment your favorites so I can check them out. Here’s my To Be Read list so far:

Ancillary Justice Trilogy by Ann Leckie
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
Artifact Space by Miles Cameron
I Wish You All The Best by Mason Deaver
Tide Child Trilogy by R.J. Barker

Weekly Favorites #26

Hey friends!

It’s the strange glowing cloud hanging above your apartment building, Sam Cote, here with another installment of Weekly Favorites! I rejoined social media last week and concluded, after a mind-numbing six hours of scrolling, that I was not ready to get back on the content train. That said, the blog lives on! Trying out this new layout (for SEO purposes). Let me know how it looks on your end!

Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin

Notes of a Crocodile – New York Review Books

I am currently reading Notes of a Crocadile by Qui Miaojin (translated by Bonnie Huie). Set in 1980’s Taipei, this book is a series of notebooks written by the protagonist, known only as Lazi. It is a queer coming of age story, with an eccentric cast of characters in the process of growing up in a country that hasn’t decided whether it tolerates or abhors them. This has been on my reading list for quite a long time, and finally found it at the library. I’m a bit over halfway through, and it’s slow going. There isn’t much overarching plot, so it hasn’t been a page-turner for me. That said, the prose is beautiful– all the credit to Bonnie Huie for adapting such gorgeous writing to English. Each scene’s delivery is detailed and visceral.

Cat Burns

I recently discovered Cat Burns, and have been loving her music. The tracks “People Pleaser” and “Home For My Heart” (with ArrDee) have been my favorites so far. I was looking for something new and energetic, and this fits the bill quite well.

Shadow and Bone: Season 2

I started watching Season 2 of Shadow and Bone, which is adapted from Leigh Bardugo’s books in the Grishaverse. The Shadow and Bone show incorporates the characters (and some plot elements) of Six of Crows, which also takes place in the Grishaverse. After watching Season 1 in 2021, I decided that reading the Shadow and Bone trilogy wasn’t in the cards for me. I gave Six of Crows a shot about a year ago and enjoyed it, which is giving me a bit more context going into this season of the show. My conclusions after the first two episodes are pretty similar to my thoughts on Season 1: I enjoyed them and I’m excited to keep watching, but I’m not expecting to be bowled over. I always have fun watching it, even if it’s not the best show I’ve ever seen– it doesn’t need to be.

Job Applications

I’m making job applications lately, and numerous versions of my résumé to go with them. My LinkedIn profile is also getting spruced up, which is boosting my confidence quite a bit.

Weekly Favorites #25

Hey friends!

It’s the mark on the wall where the doorknob hits, Sam Cote, here with another Weekly Favorites! It’s been a couple weeks, so let’s dive into it!

What I’m Reading: During my social media break, I’ve been checking out a lot of graphic novels from the library. They’re proving to be a great way to refresh my brain after spending months staring at plain words on a page. My favorite one so far has been On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden, which is also available for free as a web comic. I love the art style, and it might be the best example of cozy sci-fi i’ve read; right up there with the likes of A Psalm for the Wild Built. It has cover blurbs by Becky Chambers, Martha Wells and Ann Leckie, so you know it’s good. Here’s what I mean by cozy sci-fi: the author isn’t bending over backwards to prove that anything within the book is scientifically possible in the way it is portrayed. The spaceships look like koi fish and there isn’t a single EVA suit in the whole book. It uses space as a setting (or set of settings) to make the story possible, and asks us only to get on board– it makes for a seamless worldbuilding experience that keeps me from needing to nitpick the details. It allows me to relax about the whole endeavor of setting a story in space, and focus on the character relationships at hand. I also started Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle, which I could make a whole blog post about. As a wise clown once said: I’m lovin’ it.

What I’m Listening To: Now, Not Yet by half•alive. I knew a few songs off this album from TikTok and a cappella covers, and recently gave the whole thing a listen. It has that hard-to-pinpoint cohesion that makes it sound like an album, and I’ve listened through a few times in the past couple of weeks. As with The Oh Hellos, I later realized that this is explicitly intended to be christian music by a christian band– it’s readily apparent in the lyrics once you know what to look for. I don’t personally care too much, but I’m glad I know what to filter for as I listen. I tend to skip over one section of a song that is just spoken word about how everyone involved in the band’s tour has faith in Jesus. I’m here for the tunes, not the preaching ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What I’m Watching: Season 44 of Survivor! I’m really enjoying it so far. I think the players have a lot of strategic and dramatic potential, which is always great to see early in the season. I’ll refrain from speaking too long on it for spoilers’ sake 👀

What I’m Making: Job applications and my capstone paper! These have been the slow-grinding, high-volume, higher-stakes projects weighing on me. While they’ve both got a deadline (more or less), being “done” with either is a pretty flimsy concept. There’s always more to work on.

Weekly Favorites #24

Hey friends!

It’s the one song on your playlist that you always skip but never thought to remove from the playlist, Sam Cote, here with Weekly Favorites #24!

What I’m Reading: I finished Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree! This book is everything it was hyped up to be and I enjoyed it quite a bit! The tag-line on the cover is “high fantasy, low stakes,” which is a pretty great summary of what this book provides. It’s not completely stakes-free, which I think it to the books credit– I cared about the characters and settings, and wanted them to succeed. This is touted by many as the pinnacle of cozy fantasy, and it definitely is cozy, but I find myself taking issue with what this implies about other kinds of fantasy. I’ve always seen fantasy as a cozy genre as a whole– the coziness I find in it comes naturally when I’m able to find refuge in a fictional world, and escape into it whenever I like (even if I probably wouldn’t survive in it– I like to imagine I could). The content of Legends & Lattes is unquestionably the coziest I’ve ever read; who doesn’t love a welcoming coffee shop and a wholesome cast of characters? But my ability to escape into it is severely limited by its purposely small scale. The limited scope was exactly right for the story, and a truly unique choice given the genre, but didn’t align exactly with my particular preferences when I’m looking for a cozy read. What I mean is this: other kinds high fantasy don’t need to be excluded from “cozy fantasy” because they aren’t small-scale and low stakes– it’s often quite the opposite that gives me the deepest sense of coziness. Regardless, I liked it a lot and it’s definitely worth the read!

What I’m Listening To: Remember Owl City? Apparently Adam Young (the guy behind Owl City) spent all of 2016 making hypothetical movie scores for historical events– it’s really freaking cool, and I’ve been slowly making my way through them all. So far my favorites are Corduroy Road and The Ascent of Everest. Voyager I, Miracle in the Andes, and The Endurance are also awesome– really high quality work, and great recontextualizations of famous stories.

What I’m Watching: Hailey visited this past weekend and we watched a bunch of Survivor: Redemption Island (Season 22). We just reached the Merge. I’m excited to see how players who took the backseat in the beginning step up now that it’s an individual game!

What I’m Making: Job applications and the novel! Still plugging away at both of those. One of them is important and the other is necessary. I’ll let you speculate which is which.

Weekly Favorites #23

Hey friends!

It’s the really cool sticker on the lamp post you sometimes walk past, Sam Cote, here with another Weekly Favorites (finally)! In order to keep this the usual length, I’m going to have to actually pick favorites this time. There’s no way I could reasonably cover every amazing piece of media I’ve consumed in the past month-and-a-half.

What I’m Reading: My favorite book that I’m currently reading is Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. This book is everything it’s hyped up to be and more. There is something (nearly) univerally comforting about coffee shops and cozy establishments of every kind. Baldree is able to tap into the essence of what makes places like those so special, and translates it seamlessly into a fantasy world. If you haunt coffee shops on the regular, like me, this is a must-read. I’m about halfway through, and am trying to take my time with it!

What I’m Listening To: I have been really enjoying the Dungeons & Daddies podcast! It is a real-play D&D podcast following four dads who are dropped into the Forgotten Realms (the classic D&D fantasy world) on a quest to find their sons. It is chock-full of dad jokes, ridiculous NPC’s, and engaging roleplay. The players and the DM are a delight to listen to. There is truly nothing quite like seeing a 2014 Honda Odyssey pull up in Neverwinter.

What I’m Watching: Sticking with the fantasy theme here– The Legend of Vox Machina. This show is adapted from a D&D campaign (Critical Role season 1), and it is (in my opinion) a very successful adaptation. The players are fun to follow and full of personality. The plot and combat encounters are tailored perfectly to the characters and their backstories– as such, they’re often nail-bitingly, heart-wrenchingly engaging. Plus, the D&D mechanics and inside jokes sometimes slip their way into the show. The party often struggles to open doors, and I can often tell when a player rolled poorly. My own D&D party put me onto it, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves the game (or that style of fantasy).

What I’m Making: Remember when I started a novel back in November? I started over, and it’s actually working this time. Something about my first attempt didn’t feel right, and I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what, so I stopped. I decided to approach the project with a completely different mindset and prose style, and everythning is clicking in a way I couldn’t have anticipated. Progress is moving slowly, but it’s actually happening. I’m quite proud of what I have written so far, and I am beyond excited to see how the rest of it unfolds!

An Update!

Hey friends!

Its the Cool Ranch Dorito dust in the bottom corner of the chip bag, Sam Cote, here with an update! As you may have noticed, I haven’t kept up with Weekly Favorites in the past month. This is mostly a scheduling issue– Thursdays don’t work particularly well for me this semester, and I’ve been holding on too tightly to a schedule that isn’t ideal anymore.

Rather than continuing to fail at uploading, I am proposing a hilariously easy solution: uploading on Wednesdays. The way my class schedule looks, I think this will be significantly easier for me to follow through on. I miss uploding, and will be back at it with next Wednesday’s Weekly Favorites!

For now, here is a bit of what I’ve been working on in my personal creative writing. It is an opening paragraph to the work I hope will turn into my first novel, and I will almost certainly rewrite this paragraph eighty more times. Enjoy!

“There once was a summer camp in a remote part of the forest that had no way to contact the outside world. If it did, the next [#] or so pages would make even less sense than they already do. In fact, upon arriving at Camp Fern Creek, one might note a sensory shift. Nothing so tangible as a change in the color of the sky or a sudden shift in the weather or the crossing of a clear threshold, but something rather more subtle. It is as though the fabric of reality changes from the predictable linen of the everyday world to something more closely resembling a Persian rug. From ground-level, this isn’t easily detectable. It is only after one wanders far from camp and winds up back in their own bed, or wonders where the food in the dining hall comes from that anyone has any inkling they might not be occupying the same reality that their parents drove home to in their wood-sided station wagon. Only a small handful of individuals have ever come to this conclusion, and fewer still have kept entertaining it longer than their high lasted. Camp is, indeed, a special place.”
sam D. Cote

Weekly Favorites #22

Hey friends!

It’s the chestnut roasting on an open fire, Sam Cote, rearin’ and ready to go with another Weekly Favorites!

What I’m Reading: You guessed it! Still working on my 52nd book of the year, Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie. I’m still loving it, but I’ll admit it’s taking longer than I’d like. Hoping to knock out a few chapters a day so I can finish it reasonably soon!

What I’m Listening To: I’m listening to lots of Christmas music– I find that as I get older I have to be more deliberate about getting myself in the Christmas spirit, and the music has been pretty effective! 🎄

What I’m Watching: I watched Encanto this past week, and oh my goodness. . . It was really darn good. The concept and execution were near perfect, and it had me crying multiple times. I particularly enjoyed the musical number shared between Mirabel and Luisa– that scene establishes the problem within the Madrigal family in a way that made me feel it in my bones. I can totally see why everyone has been obsessing about it since it premiered.

What I’m Making: I put a lot of effort into this week’s video, and I’m pretty proud of it! I put a few video memes into it, and I think overall it’s a lot more engaging than my other videos recently. Here’s to improving with each upload! Here it is if you want to see.

How I Slow Down & Unplug: I think I’m going to remove this section– I’ve been saying pretty much the same thing every time, so I’ll add it back when I have something else to put here 🤷🏼‍♂️ Thanks for reading!

Weekly Favorites #21

Hey friends!

It’s the quiet un-sound that happens after a thick snowfall, Sam Cote, here with another Weekly Favorites.

What I’m Reading: I’ve officially finished my fiftieth book for the year! I finished the audiobook of Wordslut by Amanda Montell. Still two to go to meet my reading goal of 52, which are both underway: I’m continuing The Last Argument of Kings (28%) and started The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (34%). I’m on track and confident about it, and am enjoying the books so far! I might even surpass 52 at this rate 👀

What I’m Listening To: I’m listening to Ludovico Einaudi as I write this. Nothing crazy or out of the ordinary. I’s nice to listen to artists who I’ve had on repeat for years. It feels like walking down a well-worn path, especially during finals week. I’ll take all the comfort I can get.

What I’m Watching: I’ve been continuing with Andor. I wasn’t really grabbed by the first two episodes, but episodes three and four have me a bit mor interested. If something better comes along, I could definitely lose interest– It’s mostly the incredible reviews that are keeping me invested right now.

What I’m Making: Finals! I’m working with a group of 9 to make a podcast for a final project, and my job is to edit all the parts together. It’s nearly done, and I’ll put the final touches on after I write this. I also have two papers left (one of which is harder than the other). Final push, and then I’ll be done until January!

How I Slow Down & Unplug: Reading and tea, baby. Reading and tea. The nights I do it, I am able to stick to my sleep schedule, and nights when I don’t it is nearly impossible. Works like a charm.

Books You Should Not Give As Gifts

Do you have a friend who loves books? Do you love books and want to get your friends and family into reading too? This gift guide is written with the holiday season in mind, and still applies to any and all gift-giving times of year like birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebratory occasions. Having given and recieved many a book in the past few years, I’m uniquely suited to fill you in on the five types of books that you should never give as gifts.

1) Self Help Books

Unless your the person you’re shopping for (your “giftee”) expressly asks you for a specific self-help book, it’s best steer clear of this entire genre. You could get lucky and find the exact book your giftee didn’t know they needed, but the chances of that are slim (especially if they don’t typically read self-help). Miss the mark even a little bit, and you run the risk of outright insulting them.

Messy people (who are comfortable with that) probably won’t appreciate recieving The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. It can easily come across as condescending and critical of their lifestyle. A gift recipient who prides themself on being a highly effective person probably won’t appreciate recieving The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. There’s always more to learn on any subject, but such a gift may communicate that you don’t see them the way that they already see themself. That can be hurtful, which is best to avoid in a gift.

2) Books You’ve Recommended To Them

I’m an avid reader and constantly give recommendations to anyone who will listen. The people who enjoy the books that I recommend are almost always the people are genuinely intrigued by the recommendation and pick the books up on their own. The more I remind someone of the recommendation and insist that they “should” read it, the less likely they are to actually enjoy it when they get around to it.

For that reason if you’re going to gift a book that you’ve read and enjoyed, it should be a book you’ve never recommended to the giftee, and you should have a concrete reason why you decided to gift them that book. Bonus points for writing a note in the inside cover or title page describing why the book is special to you, and why it made you think of them. If the reason is “I’ve recommended this to you and you still haven’t read it,” then you need to reconsider. It’s pushy and will probably turn them off from reading it even more.

3) Books From Amazon

WAIT! I know what you’re thinking. This isn’t going to be the broad sweeping Amazon = bad, local = good argument. Apart from the fact that supporting local bookstores is great for the industry as a whole, there are real differences in quality between the books that Amazon sells and the books that independent booksellers sell.

If you’re getting your giftee a book that is part of a series, it is likely that the version from Amazon will not match the rest of their set. Height differences, cover texture, page formatting, and misprints are all unpredictable variables to consider when buying from Amazon. Here’s an example of a misprint I found on Tiktok:

click here to watch

This is just one example– it can be frustrating for people who care about having a matching series and/or properly printed books, as this happens all too often. Amazon is the cheaper option for a reason.

For very comprable convenience, try bookshop.org. They work directly with independent booksellers to make it really easy to get the right books in the best quality, while supporting small businesses. I made my own wishlist on their website using the “registry” feature, and it’s just as easy as Amazon.

4) Barnes & Noble “Collectible Editions”

Some readers have an absolute favorite book of all time, or a few that really stand out to them. Buying them a special edition of a book they love can be a great way to show them that you know their preferences, support their interests, and want to gift them something of nice quality.

In Barnes and Noble, there are usually stacks and stacks of “collectible editions” of popular books on the tables. In my opinion, they are priced highly without delivering much added value. There are people who enjoy how they look, in which case it may be a good option. However, there are many special editions for popular books that are designed individually by the publishers and independent special-edition-focused companies (Folio Society, The Broken Binding, Juniper, ect.) to do the book justice. Some publishers will include never-before-seen artwork, premium versions of maps (in the case of some fantasy books), and new/different introductions that add a lot to the experience of reading the book– not to mention that they often look a lot better than the B&N editions. Here’s a video from Daniel Greene that goes more into depth on special editions:

5) Books That You Didn’t Like

This falls squarely in the same vein as re-gifting. Unless there is a specific reason why the giftee would like that book, this can come across as just plain unthoughtful. It centers your own desire for the book to get read. The difference between recieving a thoughtfully chosen book and this kind of book is similar to the difference between being told “you can come along if you want” versus “I want to spend time with you.” It reeks of low-effort, last minute, and underappreciation. If that’s what you’re going for, then this makes a perfect gift.