Fiction Writers Review » gift guides

Bookish Gift Idea #29: Smart Pen

Celeste Ng — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:00:51 +0000

Image: LiveScribe

Imagine this: you’re taking notes at a reading or a lecture, or while thinking aloud about your latest work-in-progress. Your pen records the lecture, and later, you can place the pen on the paper at any point in the notes and hear the lecture at that point.

Doesn’t that sound like magic?

Well, we live in magical times. Smartpens, as they’re called, are a reality and are available for around $100. The New York Times gives the lowdown on one, the LiveScribe Echo, and more have come to market lately as well. Plus, the pens and their programs can help you organize your notes, too. According to the product description, the Echo “saves your notes and recordings to your computer for fast, easy access to what’s important. Search for words within your notes and find what you need fast.” Of course they make great gifts for students, but they’d also be useful for writers embroiled in research, no? And get this: it can even “convert your handwritten notes into digital text”–a huge boon for those who prefer to draft longhand.

The LiveScribe Echo and other smartpens are available through LiveScribe’s website and at many other retailers. And check back here at the FWR blog over the next two days for our last Bookish Gift Ideas of 2010. Who knows–you might find a little something for yourself as well.

Literary Gifts #4: Lit Mag Subscriptions

Celeste Ng — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:35:38 +0000

I love giving magazine subscriptions as presents: it’s like a new gift every month. If there’s a reader–or a write–on your holiday gift list, how about a subscription to your favorite literary magazine? Most subscriptions run under $40, a bargain for a present that provides a fresh infusion of stories, poems, and essays over the course of a year. And you’ll provide much-needed support to literary journals and the writers they publish.

Old standbys like The Kenyon Review, Glimmer Train, Tin House, and Virginia Quarterly Review put out beautiful, hefty issues 4 times a year. Want your stories more frequently? One Story sends a single story in an adorable pocket-sized issue every 3 to 4 weeks. You might choose a journal that specializes in the recipient’s particular interests: for example, those who appreciate the offbeat and experimental might enjoy Barrelhouse or McSweeney’s, or try Quick Fiction for those who like flash fiction.

Or consider supporting your local university’s literary magazine–or your giftee’s. Many universities run lit mags that showcase student and regional work. Search engines like Duotrope can help you sort through what’s out there.

Literary Gifts #3: MotherReader’s 105 Ways to Give a Book

Celeste Ng — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:48:27 +0000

photo by Ajoelle_xo

Books always make great presents, but just wrapping it up and handing it over is a little… blah. MotherReader offers a list of 105 books paired with complementary gifts. Ideas are grouped by recipient’s age range; many are aimed at kids and could be great ways to encourage budding readers. Here’s a sampling of my favorites:

3. Give a book with a movie theater gift card to see the upcoming film.

10. Give an interesting, insightful book with a restaurant gift card and a date to discuss the book together over a meal.

44. Everyone needs Mo Willems’ book Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, maybe adding a toy bus and a cargo truck.

76. Pair a spy-themed book like Harriet the Spy (chapter book) or The Real Spy’s Guide to Becoming a Spy (nonfiction) with rear-view sunglasses and/or a fingerprint kit.

98. Give nonfiction book Fruitless Fall with real honey from a whole foods store.

103. Match travel memoir-themed books with the… um, drink of the region. Like In a Sunburned County with Yellow Tail wine from Australia or The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific with coconut rum. (Adults only for this gift, obviously.)

I was already planning to give Olive Kitteridge to a friend–now I’m inspired to add some Maine blueberry jam (or a six-pack of donuts; those who’ve read the book will understand!). Perhaps I’ll match recent Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall with tickets to an art museum that has a good Tudor-era collection, or with a DVD set of The Tudors to spark comparison and discussion. The possibilities are endless.

FWR readers, any other ideas for book-and-gift pairings? What’s your favorite way to give a book?

Literary Gifts #2: Novel-T Tees

Celeste Ng — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:02:11 +0000

A sample Novel-T

Here’s a clever gift idea for the bookishly AND sportishly inclined. Novel-T offers a complete lineup of literary T-shirts–literally. Designed to resemble baseball jerseys, each offers “an opportunity to express your support for the all-stars of literature” and bears the name of a literary figure-cum-position player.

Appropriately enough, the “expansive” poet Whitman plays center field, quick-witted Huck Finn plays shortstop, Bartleby is out in left field (where else?), and Ahab is both pitcher and–heh–captain. The front of the shirt bears an appropriate logo, from Hester Prynne’s A to Poe’s raven. Even many of the players’ numbers have been carefully chosen: Poe wears number 13, Finn is 14 (his age in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) and Tom Sawyer is 12 (his age in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer). Moby Dick, of course, is number 1, with Ahab perpetually right behind as number 2. A complete roster is here. (FWR readers, if you have guesses at the significance of the other numbers or positions, let us know in the comments.)

Novel-T reports that “New teams, featuring an increasing roster of domestic and foreign players, will join the Novel-T Word Series league shortly.” In an interview with Galleycat, the company’s co-creator noted:

The second team is currently being assembled–no news yet, but we see some promising players in Europe. There are plenty of 20th-Century Americans that we’d love to draft. Writers, agents, estates, or publishers who’d like to make suggestions should write me. We’re hoping to debut the next team in the spring.

Best of all, $1 of each purchase benefits 826NYC, a nonprofit “dedicated to supporting students ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.”