It’s time! It’s time! I shop and bookmark lots of nifty gift ideas, and you get weekly shopping treats!
This year is going to be a lot of fun, and we’re starting off with some personalized gifts for bookish folks – I’m sure you might know one of those. Maybe two if you’re lucky.
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I think the earlier you order personalized gifts, the better, right? Let’s get started.
I know many of you are Mug People, in that you give, and get, and collect, and just generally love mugs. What’s not to love, really? Hot beverages, and cute decorations on the outside? Excellent.
Mollie Hendrick Design offers customizable book stack mugs for $30!
The easy part is choosing the interior color; then you have to pick your 19 books! And if this is a gift, do you go haunt their Goodreads profile, or sneak pictures of their bookshelf? That’ll be the challenging part, but look how adorable all those book spines are!
If you’d prefer your custom stack of books in poster form, we can help you out!
CarmenDrawsTonight offers custom bookshelf poster illustrations starting at $48!
Look how cute!
Again, the challenge is picking the books, but the shop allows for up to 15 books (the price increases depending on the number of books you choose) so there’s room for all the faves. You can choose a digital JPG or PDF, and then give them the digital file or have it printed locally or using a service that would put the design on a t-shirt, mug, canvas, poster, whatever you like. A LOT of options there!
Laura Row Studio offers similar books stack art that’s available on canvas or matte paper:
Prices range from $32-250, and it seems that the titles themselves are customized while the background art of pink and green spines stays the same. The illustration is gorgeous and the reviewer photos show some really lovely personal libraries with this art on the walls!
And if your giftee (or you yourself!) are a classics fan, how about a custom Penguin Classics book cover?
Fuzztone Prints Custom Penguin Book Cover Poster, $19+
There are four sizes available, ranging from $19 to $53, and you can choose from several different colors, too!
Not only can you order your favorite book, but you can really order whatever title/author combo you want. One person in the reviews ordered several, with one ‘book cover’ for each member of his family and it’s so cute. The one for his daughter is titled, The Fabulous Funny Fashionista with her name as the author, and, oh, what an adorable idea.
I also love how the cover is weathered with creasing so it looks like a very old book cover. There are a few people I can think of who would love one of those!
Speaking of personalized classic book covers, look at these customizable Kindle cases from KleverCase!
KleverCase Universal eReader case, $35-44 
You can choose from three sizes and eight colors, and the personalization includes the title and author, plus a message for inside the cover placed in a bookplate.
And if the classic paperback style is not your thing, KleverCase also offers ereader covers that look like hardcover books!
KleverCase Book Covers, $35-44
With this case, you can personalize the spine text and the bookplate inside. I am very partial to the cream colored one!
In the realm of miniature books, there are many fun options to browse through!
NappiBySonny makes custom bookshelves that are shaped like initials, and while the books aren’t custom, you can choose which phrase is inside your letter bookshelf.
Custom Initial Miniature Bookshelf, $55
You can choose from 14 colors and five different quotes, and there are many happy reviews for this one.
But if you’d like to select the books to appear on your miniature shelf, BooksByBritton can help you make a custom miniature shelf of your favorites!
Custom bookshelves by Britton, starting at $90
There are a range of options including number of books and what add-ons you would like, such as a miniature typewriter or a miniature cat. The store also notes that the deadline for orders with Christmas delivery in the US is Nov. 27th, with Nov. 13th for international delivery.
Britton also offers customizable jars of books in small and medium sizes, with the same deadlines as above for Christmas delivery.
Small jar of custom books by Britton, $45
Britton also offers color-focused or rainbow mini bookshelves, for which the titles are pre-selected, and come in a ton of different options!
Another custom miniature bookshelf is available from TalesUponMyShelf.
Custom Bookshelf from TalesUponMyShelf, $26+
There are two levels in terms of the number of books (up to 20 or 21-26 titles) and the reviews are all from very, very happy readers.
But if picking out someone’s favorite books is a bit too much, what about a custom book stamp?
Customized self-inking stamps are a very popular gift for teachers, but these can also be for your home library, too!
There are tons of designs, too. I really like this one!
From the Library Of stamp, $18-20
There are also embossers which can be customized, too!
This embosser from Stamp Boss is $38 has a ton of different designs and options:
We’ll be back each Wednesday with more gift guides, so if you’ve got requests or suggestions, please let us know!
See anything you like? What are you shopping for this week?
The skinny little War and Peace, especially with the thicker Romeo & Juliet made me snort laugh. Just me?
Thank you so much for posting these! I’ve been looking for a book gift to personalize for an author friend.
Does anyone know of any Etsy stores that do personalized book holiday ornaments?
And thanks for posting the skull thing a few weeks ago. I got those for a few friends, and they are super cute. 🙂
My teen is going to flip out when I present her with a custom mug full of cozy LGBTQIA+ fiction and Jane Austen. I love this so much. Thank you for the ideas.
@Jennifer: Megs Comfort Creations has clear ornaments that are filled with a custom selection of books. Is that what you’re looking for?
These are So Cool. I’ve often thought how nice it would be to have book designs of books I enjoyed, instead of general classics titles. I especially like the idea of having a digital file. Tech can be wonderful.
@SB Sarah: Yes!!! Thank you!!! That’s what I was looking for. I often get overwhelmed by all the choices on Etsy, go down a rabbit hole, and end up buying nothing. LOL.
I just adore those teeny bookshelves!!!
I got this as a birthday gift for a friend and she loved it: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RetroRosy?ref=nla_listing_details The dealer is also an antiquer so she includes curated finds in the package. It comes with a book (your choice of genre and the more specific you can be the better) a cup or mug, tea, candy or cookies, a bookmark, and an antique tchotchke that reflects the theme of the book. She also does holiday themed boxes (she had some Halloween ones with spooky decorations available at that time) so I’m sure you can get a box that includes Christmas or Hannukah items as well.
Last year, I had a pair of earrings made that featured the recipient’s favorite book. They were a hit.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/970043204/custom-miniature-book-earrings-choose?click_key=8708be00723c83a27e119e7d69865730d80685d7%3A970043204&click_sum=f180e065&ref=shop_home_feat_1&frs=1&sts=1
These mugs look appealing ~
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1136989212/your-favorite-quote-on-mug-custom?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=%26quot%3Bword+tables%26quot%3B+mug&ref=sr_gallery-1-15&pro=1&sts=1&referrer_page_guid=55f9beff-21fa-48f2-b31f-c8d7c30f95c7&organic_search_click=1
Presents for other people or presents for myself? I have too many mugs already, and I LOVE the idea of a mug with my favorite books on it. That might end up being a present for everyone in my family. We always evaluated Christmas based on how many books we received. No books = terrible Christmas and you had to sneak one from someone else’s pile.
This was my birthday present to myself recently, a bit of a splurge, but I absolutely love it: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1483715202/astronaut-bookends-for-heavy-books?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=bookends&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&pro=1&frs=1&organic_search_click=1
David has customized bookish things for me–full disclosure: he is my friend–but Book Riot and HGTV have also recommended his work recently:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CheltenhamRoad
@Ely: have you seen this?
https://www.theapollobox.com/product/sku2153007/astronaut-ornament–resin-ornament–4-colors-available?pvsku=sku2153007-07&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7eCq9YGuggMVaAytBh11owCTEAQYESABEgJxw_D_BwE
@Kareni, I haven’t seen that and I LOVE IT. OMG.
Lovely, but I’m wondering how copyright works – so with the mug, they use images of the actual spines? When I wanted to order some earrings years ago of a book written by my father, the artist said I would need to get clearance from the cover artist, designer or publisher, which actually seemed a reasonable point.