Book Ends

Now, this sounds kind of silly, but let me explain. There are book ends out there that are nice simple metal ones, those are cheap. Anything fancier, not nearly as cheap. Someone might not splurge on something like that for themselves, but it is a great idea to gift for someone. There are a lot of different options you could go with. I’ve gotten ones that you put together, just a CNC cut thing where it’s two flat pieces of wood that slot together to make the L shape for holding up books, plus then a cut of the Fellowship of the Ring as the brace. So you can find a number of things like that which are great because you can tailor it to the type of book that someone likes. We also have some heavier ones, one with cats reaching up onto books and another the top of a castle with a dragon sitting on it. So you have a ton of options and it’s a luxury item, which makes it something that a book lover would love to get, but might not for themselves.

Book Darts

Another one of those accessory items, and this could be book marks as well, but book darts are just cooler. These are little metal clips that slide onto a page of a book. You can use them as a book mark and just mark at the top of the page where you stopped, or you can use the pointier side of the book dart and slide it along the side of the page to mark what paragraph and what side of the page you stopped on. This is something that’d be a great stocking stuffer for a book lover.

A Series Set

This could be given in a few different ways. There are some book series that come on a box set, so you could do that, or there are others that you can just get the person all matching books. I know, for example, my Dresden Files and Harry Potter are not all the same, some are short paperbacks, some are tall paperbacks and some are hard cover. If you know what a person has, you can help them get a more consistent collection just be giving a book that’ll match what they have the most of or what they like the best. This one won’t be for everyone, but swapping books in and out like that will please some people as everything will look more aesthetically pleasing. And if you can find an older boxed or matching set of some of the books, that’s a bonus too.

Special Edition/Early Edition

For someone who loves books, there are versions of books out there that they might be interested in, but just won’t be something they buy, because either they cost more or since they already have the book they don’t feel like they should get it again. Find those special editions, and by that I don’t mean the movie tie-in covers. But I’m talking about the hard cover with the embossed, the one with special art pieces in the book, if it’s an older book, look for an older printing of it. Things like that again are those luxury items that someone might not buy for themselves but that they’ll probably be drooling over and wishing that they could get. Now, be aware, first editions, or some of the fancy editions of books can get to be quite spendy, but even just something that is nicely bound and has a good spine edge on it, that’ll work if it’ll standout and highlight a book on the shelf.

Book Bag

Now, when I say this, it can be two things, it can be a bag for carrying your books, but they also do book printed bags that you could certainly carry books in, but you could also use for shopping, for a day trip, going to be beach, whatever. But they have nerdy or book things on them. My wife has a bag that she has used for crafting that has an image on it made from the words of the a book. So like a scene from Pride and Prejudice that is all just words laid out in order, from Pride and Prejudice to make that shape. Or you can find some with artwork from the book on them. Or maybe a pithy quote or just a quote in general from their favorite book on it. I’d stay away from the more generic ones just because fairly often those are just too cutesy or could miss the mark for the person than something that is directly tied to a book.

There are way more options you could look at as well for someone who loves books. I will say, books themselves, like a new book for a person, are tricky unless you really know the person. I’m a big fan of literature, but there are some things that I just don’t want or care about in terms of books and I know that I’ll be apt to just read them and then sell them used, or if it doesn’t come off the shelf for a long time, just sell. So know your audience, and I like the idea of helping make someone’s books more unique, uniform, whatever by giving them something that they might not get for themselves, like an early edition or a special printing of a book.

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Vintage Copies of Books – So, books will show up multiple times on the list in different ways, but I think that there are different types of books you can pick up for that fantasy fan. And one of the cooler ones is vintage books. Getting an older copy of Lord of the Rings, even if it has a little bit of wear and tear on it is going to be awesome for a fan of Lord of the Rings, because the vintage covers and just the feel of the books is different. Or, it could be any other vintage sort of fantasy book, but there’s just something about having that almost collectors type book, that fantasy book lovers will really like.

Box Sets of Books – Here’s the other book thing. Box sets of books are also that other book lovers collectible thing. Again, box sets are the pieces that you can put on the shelf and show off. It also means that you can give them something they might not buy, for example, if they were picking up the Harry Potter books as they went along and they were published, they could have a mismatched set, but most book lovers will spend their own money on more books, not making a consistent collection, so you could give them that as a box set, so it is consistent, and it’s something that they’ll likely love.

Fantasy Themed Artwork – Now, this is a bit iffy to put on here, simply because, while Superhero artwork you can know has a recognizable superhero on it, fantasy artwork is all over the map. So, I would lean towards artwork that is based on something. So, Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter are good examples here. There’s going to be artwork that has been done depicting both of those stories, and if someone is a fan of that story, they’ll appreciate the artwork more so. That said, maybe the person has some obscure story that they like and there isn’t artwork on it, I’d be hesitant to suggest picking up large artwork, but postcard size stuff that is work appropriate and they can put up in a cubicle, that would work. Just don’t go with anything too large that they might not like because it’s just not their style.

Fantasy Themed Magnets – Fairly specific with this one, but I’ve found that a lot of people have pretty boring magnets, if they have many magnets on their fridge. Or they might again be using them at work in a cubicle. This is where you can go with the more generic fantasy, because, again, it’s smaller. And especially going with a cute art style or maybe a chibi art style, those work for a nerdy person’s fridge. If the person has a beer fridge or a wine fridge you can put magnets on, getting the hobbits drinking pints in chibi form would be great, in my opinion, for something like that. Or maybe, the person doesn’t want chibi but loves Dungeons and Dragons fantasy, get them dragon magnets. This also has the advantage of being something if you get a magnet that you can use as a stocking stuffer.

Lego – Yup, there are plenty of fantasy Lego sets out there, some generic, and then Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Sorry for you Game of Thrones fans, no Lego sets. This is another display type thing, or if they are younger kids, something that can be played with. But in our house, we have a Hobbit Lego on one shelf and a Hogwarts up on top of another shelf. So, you can go small or big with this, but Lego is a bit on the spendier side of things with the larger sets. It is a lot of fun to put together, and if someone has time off over the holidays, it gives them something fun to do through their time off.

Video Games – Woo, another generic category, but there are a lot of fantasy games out there. You can go retro if they have an older system or a Retron system and get them things like the original Zelda or Final Fantasy. Or, there are middle aged games (not games in the middle ages) like the original Dragon Age that have been ported over to the newer systems, but if someone still have an XBox 360, you could find it for that. There are so many fantasy games out there, figure out if the person you are giving the gift to like the more sword and sorcery style games, more story driven games, fighting, whatever it might be, and you’ll probably be able to find something unique for them. And if they are already a video gamer and have a lot of them, you can look towards more of the indie titles and there are a lot of interesting fantasy games out there.

Classic Fantasy Movies/TV Shows – When I say classic, I more so mean old ones. Find the fantasy movies or TV shows that people might not remember from back in the day. I’m sure there are plenty of good lists out there, or you could find the B-Movie classics in the genre as well. Definitely a lot of them you can check out, and if they are more of a classic one, the cheesy nature of them works better versus a modern cheesy story. Now, you still end up with some of them being too cheesy or dated poorly in other ways, so do a bit of research, but you can probably find bluray or DVD collections of them that would have a good variety as well.

This list is a bit more generic, so I apologize because it’ll make you do more work tracking stuff down. But fantasy is a bit broader than the board game topics and even broader than superheroes, because, while there are indie superheroes out there, most people think Marvel and DC. I tried to suggest some ideas that are a bit more specific for Lord of the Rings fans or Harry Potter fans, but there’s so much in the fantasy realm that it’s hard to cover some of the broader stuff. For that reason, if the person loves reading, books is always a great option, next time you see their book shelf, look at it and find what books might work there.

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