On Gift Giving

It started with me looking in the net for something to gift a friend. We are very similar in a lot of ways.I want her to have an experience- not just something nice, fancy for her birthday.I flipped through the net. I want to call it a coincidence, I stumbled over the bookbox. It is a local company that curates books. When you place an order, you will be asked to answer a series of questions, share your goodreads/ amazon wish list to ensure that no books are doubled up. For an avid reader, looking for my next best read had always been challenging. Having someone who can do this is a great experience. I decided on the bookbox. I have not personally experienced it so, I decided to try it first.

I received some snacks and annotation supplies on my order. It was challenging reading from an actual book. Until recently,I did not expect that light sources are gonna make my life complicated. I can't read under the blanket- my reading lamps are either too bright or too dim for that. The book size makes it challenging for me to flip the pages, handle the book with one hand. There is the risk of tearing a page since I have to physically flip through the pages.

That left me feeling frustrated the past week since I am so used to reading in my Kindle. But I was able to cope up.Aside from these minor annoyances, I did enjoyed reading more with a physical book. I discovered that annotating books makes me engage with the story and author more. It gives me more perspective and, it helps me flip through those memorable bits and pieces faster.

It was really fun. I feel that I had had different reading experience- one that hopefully my friend would hopefully enjoy too.

This post is supposed to be about me making a book review on this book I just read. But, I end up writing about me reading. There will always be another post I guess.

For now, I just want to share this: Gift giving is not so much about giving someone fancy or expensive. Its more about the relevance, experience. Not everyone is like me. But when the gift fades away, we're left with nothing but its memories. What makes them more vivid, real is the experience.