Book Club Gift Guide 2024
Food
My favorite gifts to give are homemade and consumable, like these Pride & Prejudice silhouette cookies I made from 3D-printed cookie cutters I got on Etsy (no longer available, but similar to these) or snack mix packaged in bags decorated with pages from an old book. (In very busy years I’ve repackaged store-bought snack mix or chocolates in a DIY origami box for that handmade touch.)
Bookmarks
Whether you DIY them (like the examples above made by a fellow book club member), print them at your local copy shop or buy them pre-made, bookmarks are an easy and useful gift for almost anyone. This crafter even made a custom vintage library card with her book club’s selections on it – she links to a free template in the comments. To produce bookmarks in quantity, I like to make up a sheet and have them printed on 100# gloss cover paper at the copy shop, but you could also collage them, fold them from paper, sew them (a great way to use up fabric scraps) or even make them from vintage buttons. The internet will give you more ideas than you know what to do with.
Pencils
All but the most hardy tech adopters among us still need to use a pencil occasionally, and there are fun literary-themed pencils available on Etsy, like these Jane Austen ones (of course) or more generic ones about books and reading. (Or you can get custom ones with any saying you like.)
Postcards
Postcards can be useful communication devices (remember mail?), but I tend to treat them as mini artworks. Either way, they’re an inexpensive and easily personalized gift, because there are so many fun literary-themed postcards out there to choose from. My book club has a Jane Austen bent, so one year I broke this lovely set of 100 up into a pile for each member and wrapped them up in pretty ribbon – years later I still see them on members’ refrigerators occasionally when they host book club. During 2020, when we weren’t meeting in person, I mailed each of them a copy of my own Visit Pemberley postcard. And assuming your book club isn’t packed with Janeites, there are fun collections of postcards with a more generic literary theme, like this one and this one.
Tea Towels
Whether you want a custom towel with your book club reads or something more generally related to books and reading, there are more options than you’ll know what to do with on Spoonflower. You can buy their tea towels pre-made, or buy a yard of fabric and end up with four towels to hem yourself with my favorite mitered corner tutorial.
Stickers
Last year I ordered one of these funny stickers for everyone in my book club and they were a big hit. You can find stickers online for almost any literary theme you can imagine, or make your own at places like Zazzle or Sticker Giant or StickerApp.
Totebags
Every reader needs something to carry around all those books. Whether you buy a bag to support your local library or choose something generically bookish, you’ll be giving a gift you know will get used. Some of my favorites are the ones from Out of Print (example shown above). If you can sew a straight line, you can also upcycle an existing tote bag (like a boring freebie from a conference) with your own fabric shell – it’s a great shortcut and an easy way to give new life to old bags.
T-shirts
There are too many good book-themed tees out there to pick just a few, but The Bookish Goods, Etsy, Piper & Ivy and Out of Print are good places to start. Fun fact: My “What Happens in Bath” tee arose from an offhand comment during our book club discussion of Persuasion.
And Now for Something Completely Different
Lastly, these spoons by ProseandPolish on Etsy didn’t fit into any of my categories but they made me smile – they’re more pricey than my typical book club gift, but maybe for our 20th anniversary in a few years I’ll splurge.