Do Book Clubs make good gifts?

Tuesday, May 13th

Do Book Clubs Make Good Gifts?

Selecting an amazing gift for someone special in your life can be undeniably challenging. After all, it may seem like that person has everything they need or want. Perhaps you have exhausted your list of great ideas over the years. You understandably want to find a gift that will be well-received and that is thoughtful. For the book lover in your life, a book club subscription membership may be a perfect idea. What makes a book club membership such a great gift?

A Personalized Gift for a Book Lover

The first gift ideas that may come to mind for someone special may be the least original. You may have thought about bath goodies or candles, a shirt or something equally universal. Of course, you can customize these slightly, such as by choosing a candle scent or shirt color that you know the person loves. However, you may be looking for a gift idea that is more thoughtful and personalized. When you ask yourself what this special person enjoys and reading comes to mind, a book club membership makes perfect sense.

Reading is something that a book lover may enjoy at least a few times each week. As a result, he or she may quickly run out of reading material. Taking time to hunt for books to read so frequently can detract from the enjoyment of reading. After all, your special someone wants to spend time reading rather than shopping. A book club membership may include the delivery of one or several books to the recipient each month. Because of this unique feature of the gift, a book club membership is thoughtful on many levels.

Tailored Book Recommendations

Book clubs want their members to have convenient access to books that they will find enjoyable. Because of this, many book clubs actively request initial insight to get to know the new member better. For example, some may have a survey for new members to complete that expands on genre and author preferences. Through this feedback, the book club can more easily tailor its recommendations to suit the individual reader's preferences.

Many book clubs also request additional feedback from their members periodically throughout the year. Perhaps a member wants to try out a different genre or read work from another specific author. Maybe the niche that the book club has selected has been too narrow for the member's interests. By requesting additional feedback from established members, each member is able to optimize the benefits of their subscription and continue drawing considerable enjoyment from the membership. At the same time, it enables the member to grow as a reader and to explore developing interests.

Enjoyment Throughout the Year

A typical gift, such as candles or a shirt, has limited enjoyment. A candle, for example, will eventually burn out. A shirt may be trendy for a season or two. Of course, you could always give a book lover a specific book that is on his or her reading list. However, that book may be read in a few weeks or less, and it may never be picked up again. You understandably want to give something that offers extended enjoyment. A book club membership is a gift that continues to deliver enjoyment throughout the year. Rather than giving one book as a gift, you are giving a dozen books or more.

Your primary purpose of giving a gift may be to deliver joy to the recipient or to celebrate a special occasion. However, you also may want that person to have warm thoughts about you when the gift is in use. With a book club membership, the gift recipient will receive new books regularly throughout the year. With each new box that arrives in the mail, that person's thoughts may inevitably wander to how thoughtful your gift was. You may even hear about how great one of the books was from time to time.

An Affordable Gift

Most people shop for a gift with a specific budget in mind, so you may wonder if a book club subscription would be affordable for your budget. In many cases, there are two primary ways to pay for a book club subscription. You can prepay for a year, or you can break the expense down into monthly payments. If you are working with a tight budget, such as around the holiday season or another time of year when money is unusually tight, you may appreciate the ability to spread the cost of your gift out over the course of a year.

Many paperback books are priced affordably. However, giving one book may not seem like a sufficient present. On the other hand, paying for 12 books or more may seem somewhat cost-prohibitive for some shoppers. The good news is that you may not pay full price for those books. Instead, you may get a discount because of your participation in the book club and your commitment to purchase more books through the membership throughout the year. Because of this potential discount, you can enjoy true value for your money when you give the gift of a book club subscription.

Incredible Health Benefits

The primary reason why you may think about giving a book club subscription to someone on your gift list may be because of his or her love of reading. However, there are many incredible health benefits that have been linked with reading, and you are offering these benefits through your gift. Reading regularly has been shown to reduce stress levels. Stress has far-reaching and harmful effects throughout your body, so stress reduction improves health from head to toe. Likewise, it facilitates sleep readiness and may help you to enjoy deeper and more restful sleep for additional total-body health benefits. Through these effects, reading can lower your heart rate, reduce blood pressure and improve cardiovascular health.

By reading, you are able to escape from your own reality for a short period of time. By doing so, you can stop dwelling on your own circumstances and immerse yourself in a new reality. In addition, you may not feel so isolated and alone when you read regularly. These combine to improve feelings of depression and loneliness. At the same time, some studies have indicated that individuals who read regularly may live as much as two years longer than those who do not read regularly.

Reading also has exceptional cognitive benefits. For example, reading regularly can improve your vocabulary and help you to master reading comprehension. It can keep your brain sharp. As you get older, it can help to decrease cognitive decline that is commonly associated with aging. It even plays a role in the development of your empathetic side. For many people, the alternative to spending leisure time reading is watching TV. Watching television, however, has been linked to significant cognitive decline. This decline can impact everything from muscle control and decision-making to hearing and vision. A book club subscription encourages regular reading throughout the year. In the process, it has the potential to deliver all of these health benefits to the book club member.

There are a seemingly endless number of presents that you can consider giving as a gift to someone special, but none of the other gifts that have popped into your mind have seemed quite right. A book club subscription may not be a common or traditional gift, but you can see that it comes with great benefits and delivers boundless enjoyment. Before you make a final decision about giving the gift of a book club subscription, it makes sense to learn about the different membership options available.