It’s Christmas soon, and that means that right about now, all librarian friends and lovers are frantically searching for the very most bestest gifts they can find, that will fill the hearts of their librarian chums and beloveds with pure joy, and a lovely warm feeling.
Of course, the easiest and quickest way to get this feeling is through the imbibing of lots of strong alcohol, and lovely as this is, the inner glow only lasts a short while….a delightful library-themed gift will continue to warm the cockles of the recipients book-loving heart for months to come. So to follow are a few posts that feature some library-tastic gifts I’ve found on Etsy, hub of joyful and horrific craftage.
Library Furniture
Now, at heart, every librarian secretly wants their own, “proper” library. An old fashioned one, with sturdy shelves lining the wall, nooks and crannies filled with well-maintained leather-bound volumes, tall ladders on rollers to let them swoosh around the room, and comfortable chairs to curl up on when reading. It’s a dream, but not one easily or often achieved. While your pet librarian awaits the lottery win that will enable their relocation to a spacious country manor, with room aplenty for their personal library, perhaps you can help them out with a few items of library furniture?
First of all, you need a sign. How will people know it’s a Library if there’s no “Library” sign? But you don’t want to be too boring or predictable, oh no! So, get them a “Library” sign in a foreign language. French is always good:
Lamps are very handy, and who wants a standard, green-shaded and old fashioned one, when you can have one made of books? Not entirely of course: it’s never good to put burny-paper too close to ignitey-bulbs.
If horror writers whose lives were almost ended by incidents replicating events in their books are what excites your librarian, this Steven King book lamp will have them squealing with joy:
Or if they prefer their books in sliced up form when they’re on a lamp, this is the chap they’ll want:
If you feel the library is more in need of some subtle, understated mood lighting that simultaneously screams “I need a DRINK!”, this should do the trick:
Bookends are pretty useful too: books are surprisingly adept at frolicking with gravity, and sliding in waterfalls to the floor if left unrestrained on shelves.
If the recipient has recently retired from their second job as a go-go dancer, this set of bookends might take them back to their happy place:
If they’ve unfortunately lost their mind, and believe themselves to be adrift in time from their true reality of actually being a Victorian child, this should suit them down to the ground:
And this set is quite a novel idea. Get it? Novel. Idea. *sigh*
Of course, every library needs a nice, cosy chair to curl up in. If you get one and cover it in this fabric, you’re effectively creating the library version of camouflage gear:
There you go – one snazzy library, fully furnished!
In my next post…I’ll be looking at gifts for love and lovers in the library. One, two, three….”awwwww”.
*Warning – once again, blatant stereotyping is in action in this post.
Dumpling in a Hanky 