Gift Guide: 10 Handpicked Holiday Gifts

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In this technological age, nothing beats curling up beside the fireplace with a rare book.

Technology might be giving publishing a run for its money, but that only seems to increase the value of an original printed tome. No one knows that better than best-selling author and aspiring rare-book collector Lisa Tucker. “Though electronic reading devices are undeniably convenient, they lack so many joys of the reading experience: the smell of a book, the feel of it in your hands, the ability to hold your place with a bookmark—and to know how much progress you’ve made by seeing the pages that remain,” she notes. With a newly released novel, The Winters in Bloom, in bookstores since fall, Tucker has found that reminders of the book’s role in history help her creative juices to flow. After beginning her rare-book collection while earning a graduate degree in English, she looks to it as a reminder of the great influence literature has on society. “They reside in a special glass case where I can see them while I work,” she says. “They inspire me and remind me that I am contributing in my own small way to the great history of written human experience.” She also considers them great for gifting. “A rare book is the perfect gift for the book lover in your life. Now if only my friends and family are reading this....”