Christmas Book Ideas

Many of you may be panicking that there’s only a few shopping days left, but you can always head into your local bookshop and buy everyone you know a perfect present in the form of reading material. At least that’s my philosophy. I have done a few of these gift guides before in 2012, and 2010, and 2009.  You may find ideas there but here are some new ones just in case.

For the little ones

I’ve become an aunt in the last few years and so I have been discovering children’s books all over again. I love Andrea Beaty’s Rosie Revere, Engineer and Ada Twist, Scientist, both of which provide a nice antidote to the princessy ‘happily ever after’ nonsense. I also loved The Fox and the Star, a magical book by Coralie Bickford-Smith. And if you want something Irish, A Dublin Fairytale by Nicola Colton features well-known landmarks in gorgeous illustration.

For the teenager

Asking For It by Louise O’Neill has received a huge amount of press since it was published in 2015. It even generated a documentary on sexual consent presented by Louise herself and broadcast this year on RTE. It’s a book that teenagers of all sexes need to read.

For the bookworm

I wholeheartedly recommend Sinead Gleeson’s The Glass Shore which I reviewed on the blog a while ago. I also love The Winter Papers, a beautifully produced anthology of the arts in Ireland, volume two of which was published in October this year. Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones has won the 2016 Goldsmiths Prize and the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year 2016 and has been lauded by everyone I know who has read it (unfortunately I have yet to get to it, but it’s on my list).

For the music lover

Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography Born to Run gives a real insight into the icon including his bouts with depression and the catharsis he finds in his legendary live performances. Leonard Cohen’s volumes of poetry are amazing reading (I have this one) and a great gift for a grieving fan. And Sylvia Patterson’s I’m Not With The Band is a bawdy no-holds-barred memoir from a music journalist who started her career with Smash Hits.

For the oenophile

Hugh Johnson’s On Wine: Good Bits from 55 Years of Scribbling is a compilation from the foremost writer on the subject, and A Hedonist in the Cellar by Jay McInerney is another great read from one of America’s most well-known novelists.

For the creative person

Neil Gaiman’s commencement speech in 2012 for The University of the Arts in Philadelphia was published in 2014 as a cute collectible hardback entitled Make Good Art. I was given a copy of it by my sister for my birthday a few years ago and I’d recommend it as a stocking-filler for any artist who needs a little affirmation.

And finally…

If you need any other recommendations, please feel free to ask in the comments. (I offered a recommendation service before and many people emailed me so if you’d rather do that my email address is here.)  For any subject other than sport, I am at your service!