The Best Booksgiving Yet!

In case you missed my post from last week, I explained Booksgiving and how it came to be an annual holiday in our family. In my humble opinion, this year’s Booksgiving was the best yet!

One reason this year’s celebration was extra special is because everyone from the original Booksgiving (circa 2016) was in attendance! Our friends James and Amy were visiting us that weekend, and it happened to line up perfectly with our Booksgiving celebration. This was also our biggest Booksgiving ever because other friends joined in on the fun as well.

Creating the Perfect Mood

To set the mood for the evening, I made a Booksgiving design on my trusty chalkboard wall that everyone could see it when they walked in. I also lit my favorite candle of all time (Campsite Coffee from Bath & Body Works), and put on some ambient lighting to give a cozy coffee shop vibe. (If you didn’t already know, I test as a type 4 on the Enneagram...I realize that spending time setting the “mood” for my party is classic Enneagram 4, but I’m just going to lean into it!)

The Best Books from This Year

Once everyone arrived at our house, and hung out for a while, we each wrote the following information down on a notecard:

1. Name

2. Favorite genres of books

3. Books we have read and enjoyed

4. Titles of books we would like to read

After that, I collected each person’s card and distributed them so that everyone had someone to buy a book for. Because there were people who did not know each other, I tried to arrange it so that everyone was buying a book for someone they knew well.

Once that part was taken care of, we had each person in the room share about the best book they read in the past year and what they enjoyed about it. It was fun to hear the varied interests of everyone in the room: fantasy, theology, historical fiction, and more!

Trip to the Bookstore

Finally, it was time for one of the most fun parts of Booksgiving...our “field trip” to the bookstore! We all piled into the car and headed to Barnes & Noble.

Once there, everyone splits up and tries to clandestinely purchase a book without the recipient noticing. It’s really fun to sneak around or even try to trick people into thinking you are buying a really ridiculous book (for example, I’m pretty sure James found a book about Weiner dogs he was pretending he was going to buy for Nick).

After purchasing our books, we all headed back to our place to get ready to exchange books! Everyone got one of our old gift bags to hide the book until they gave it to the person whose name they had drawn.

Snacks and Sharing

Once everyone settled in with their plate of cookies and a mug of chocolate, tea, or coffee, we were ready to begin!

First, we took turns reading some of my favorite poems about the joy of books. Sarah definitely won the award for the best dramatic reading of poems for the evening...it was very entertaining!

Next, everyone went around the room and shared what they love about reading. For some of us, it’s the ability to escape into an entirely new place through the pages of a book. For others, it’s experiencing life from a totally different perspective. A few of us have great childhood memories of our parents reading to us or reading in our rooms late into the night when we should have been asleep (sorry, Mom).

As someone who has always loved reading, it is always so fun to hear other people share about what reading means to them.

The Giving of Books!

Finally, the night was coming to a close, but the most exciting part was about to begin! One at a time, each person got up, grabbed their gift bag, and gave it to the person whose name they had drawn.

Each person read the back of the book they were receiving out loud, which always gives me more ideas of books I want to read! Then, the person giving the book shared why they chose the book for that person. Sometimes it’s as simple as the fact that the person directly asked for that book, but usually there is another reason why they thought of that book for that specific person.

The Parting of the Ways*

After we all received our books, we spent time chatting. While the idea is that we would all read our books for a while afterwards, it was pretty late so we all parted ways for the night.

I have had three amazing Booksgivings in the past, but this year really takes the cake! It was the largest Booksgiving we have ever had...only 8 people, but that’s big compared to the usual 3 or 4). Despite my introverted tendencies, I just love sharing Booksgiving with more and more people! I hope that sharing about this holiday on my blog will give others the idea to start a Booksgiving of their own with their friends and family!

Would you ever celebrate Booksgiving? Tell me in the comments! I would also love to hear any ideas you have to make Booksgiving even better!

*Did anyone get this Doctor Who reference? If so, congrats...you are just as big of a nerd as I am ;)

For those curious, here are the books everyone recieved this year:

1. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

2. The Judge Hunter by Christopher Buckley

3. Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole

4. The Complete Book of Woodworking by Tom Carpenter and Mark Johanson

5. Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

6. Kids Write Jokes by @KidsWriteJokes

7. American Street by Ibi Zoboi

8. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis