bookshelves of doom

Themed gift ideas: For a future (or current!) Jane Austen fan.

I love themed gifts, but I don't always have the right folks on my to-buy-for list for all of the entertaining things I think up.

Therefore, this year, I shall share said ideas with you, so that I won't have all of these Brilliant Thoughts in vain. Or something.

For a future (or current!) Jane Austen fan:

Fiction: Depending on the age and interests of the giftee, pair up an Austen classic with a retelling or something along the lines of The Jane Austen Book Club, Cassandra's Sister, Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries (in which Jane is a sleuth!), or go for broke with a gift set.

If you'd rather go the mash-up route, the Penguin Classics edition of Sense and Sensibility could be paired with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

You could pair Pride and Prejudice with a bazillion and six things, from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to Bridget Jones' Diary to Austenland to one of the Carrie Bebris mysteries.

Mansfield Park could be paired with Joan Aiken's Mansfield Revisited, Vera Nazarian's Mansfield Park and Mummies, or Lynn Shepherd's Murder at Mansfield Park.

The annotated Emma could be paired with Joan Aiken's Jane Fairfax or Mr. Knightley's Diary, by Amanda Grange. (There aren't a whole lot of Emma re-writes out there. See below for a couple of film adaptations, though!)

Sadly, Val McDermid's YA thriller based on Northanger Abbey won't be out until 2014, and while that's TOTALLY the one I'd go with (<--a statement based solely on my love for Wire in the Blood), you could also take a look at Marvel's comic book adaptation.

And, of course, you could pair the gorgeous annotated edition of Persuasion with Diana Peterfreund's super-rad For Darkness Shows the Stars.

Nonfiction: Possibilities abound, including A Jane Austen Education, What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew, Why Jane Austen?, Jane Austen's Letters, or the Jane Austen Handbook. 

Paired with:

A Jane Austen (or Mr. Darcy!) t-shirt from Novel-T or something from Out of Print Clothing; a film adaptation—one of the usual suspects like Emma Thompson's S&S, the Firth/Ehle P&P, Clueless (Emma) or Lost in Austen, OR go with a lesser known one like Metropolitan (Mansfield Park in New York) or Aisha (Bollywood Emma!)—or something from this Etsy treasury.

As always, suggestions are very welcome in the comments!

Previously:

For the trivia lover on your list.
For your favorite space traveler. 
For an aspiring forensic genius.  
For your resident fashion maven. 

Themed gift ideas: For your resident fashion maven.

I love themed gifts, but I don't always have the right folks on my to-buy-for list for all of the entertaining things I think up.

Therefore, this year, I shall share said ideas with you, so that I won't have all of these Brilliant Thoughts in vain. Or something.

For your resident fashion maven:

Fiction: Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy, Beauty Queens, Airhead, Violet on the Runway, Hanging By a Thread, Bad Kitty. (Those are just a few of the options, of course. There are a zillion others. Relatedly, I was going to include that Tyra Banks book, but I just couldn't do it.)

Nonfiction: Something on the hows of makeup, like The Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual or the Seventeen Ultimate Guide to Beauty, something on the history of fashion like Fashion 101 or Fashion: the Definitive History of Costume and Style, and/or something on fashion design or making your own cosmetics.

Paired with:

A subscription to Birchbox or something from this Etsy treasury.

Previously:

For the trivia lover on your list.
For your favorite space traveler. 
For an aspiring forensic genius. 

Themed gift ideas: For an aspiring forensic genius.

I love themed gifts, but I don't always have the right folks on my to-buy-for list for all of the entertaining things I think up.

Therefore, this year, I shall share said ideas with you, so that I won't have all of these Brilliant Thoughts in vain. Or something.

For an aspiring forensic genius:

Fiction: Guy Langman, Crime Scene Procrastinator by Josh Berk, and I Hunt Killers, by Barry Lyga.

Nonfiction: The Forensic Casebook, The FBI Handbook of Crime Scene Forensics, or another book along those lines.

Paired with:

Crime Scene tape, a fingerprinting kit, and/or something from this Etsy treasury.

Previously:

For the trivia lover on your list.
For your favorite space traveler. 

Themed gift ideas: For your favorite space traveler.

I love themed gifts, but I don't always have the right folks on my to-buy-for list for all of the entertaining things I think up.

Therefore, this year, I shall share said ideas with you, so that I won't have all of these Brilliant Thoughts in vain. Or something.

For your favorite space traveler:

Fiction: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (or the whole series) 

Nonfiction: Brief History of Time (or a book of star charts)

Paired with:

A comfy new bathrobe and plushy towel. (I'm partial to Marimekko, obvs, but anything would work!)

A Douglas Adams Novel-T would work, too, or something from this Etsy treasury.

Other related suggestions? Leave 'em in the comments!

Previously:

For the trivia lover on your list.

Themed gift ideas: For the trivia lover on your list.

I love themed gifts, but I don't always have the right folks on my to-buy-for list for all of the entertaining things I think up.

Therefore, this year, I shall share said ideas with you, so that I won't have all of these Brilliant Thoughts in vain. Or something.

For the trivia lover on your list:

Fiction: An Abundance of Katherines and Geektastic (or A View from Saturday for the younger set)

Nonfiction: The Visual Miscellaneum (and/or Pick Me Up, and/or Ripley's Believe It Or Not)

PAIRED WITH:

Your MP3 player of choice loaded with the entire library of Stuff You Should Know podcasts (which are free to download via iTunes)

And/or a subscription to Mental Floss, and/or something from this Etsy treasury of trivia-related items!

Other trivia-related suggestions? Leave 'em in the comments!