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2012 Fine Books & Collections
Book Lover’s
Gift Guide
All year long we keep our eyes out for appealing products for book lovers, so whether you’re giving or receiving, you’re sure to find something delightful on our list. By Rebecca Rego Barry & Nate PedersenRebecca Rego Barry is the editor of this magazine. Nate Pedersen is a contributing writer, whose writing has also recently appeared in The Believer, The Guardian, Mystery Scene, and Renaissance.
USB Typewriter
Hate computers but need to use them anyway? Prefer the typewriter to the keyboard? Trying to maintain a vintage style in the digital age? Answer “yes” to any of these questions and you should consider replacing your computer’s keyboard with this USB typewriter. The typewriter literally takes the place of your keyboard, in a striking bridge between 1922 and 2012. Now you can live out your Hemingway fantasies—typing out your masterpiece on an Underwood in Paris—while maintaining the myriad benefits of a word processor. If Hemingway had had a “save” function, he never would have lost his juvenelia in the famous suitcase-at-the-train-station mishap. $799
www.uncommongoods.com/product/usb-typewriter
Literary Teas
A winter’s night reading just isn’t the same without a warm cup of tea by your side. Now you can choose a tea to complement your reading. Bag Ladies Tea has a special selection of Novel Teas, where each tea bag is tagged with literary quotes from the likes of C. S. Lewis and Alice Hoffman. $12.50 Or, if you’re reading (or re-reading) your way through the Austen oeuvre, turn to Bingley’s Tea Limited for the Jane Austen Tea Series. The inventively named teas in this series make delicious complements to key scenes in the Austen novels: “Compassion for Mrs. Bennet’s Nerves,” “Marianne’s Wild Abandon,” “Longbourn Wedding Tea,” or “Emma’s Perfect Match.” $10.95
left: www.bingleysteas.com/products/austen/index.html
right: www.bagladiestea.com/novel-tea.html
NYPL Light
Jerzy Kosinski, the Polish-American novelist, once said of the New York Public Library, “There was one place where I could find out who I was and what I was going to become.” Now, even if you don’t live in New York City, you can bring a small dose of the bookish inspiration of that majestic environment to your own desk. The NYPL shop offers its famous reading room lamps, an adaptation of those originally designed for the library by Carrère and Hastings, in three sizes: compact, desk, and floor. $549
www.thelibraryshop.org/VISUAL-Reading-Room-Lamp-1642
Limited Edition Purse
Ever since Natalie Portman carried an Olympia Le-Tan book clutch on the red carpet (hers was Lolita), these limited edition book purses have been hot items. The French handbag designer has created an entire collection of elegantly embroidered book bags inspired by literature, each with a brass clasp. Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies was made in an edition of sixteen, as was William Burroughs’ Junkie (now sold out). Le-Tan even fashioned a set of bags based on the prop books from Wes Anderson’s recent film, Moonrise Kingdom. €1,140/$1400