Why Books Make Better Gifts
Three reasons why books are better than toys and screens
Whether you want to or not, you’ve probably already been thinking about what to get as Christmas gifts for the people closest to you. Maybe it’s for your friends or spouse, your kids or co-workers. There’s no shortage of ads selling you a vision of why their gift will bring true joy and meaning — new toys, gadgets, and the latest fads that will likely end up in the garbage bin before next holiday season.
I want to make a case for why books (I am intentionally focusing on stories of fiction) are some of the greatest gifts you can give. Below you’ll find three simple reasons, and a list of good books to buy for adults and kids alike.
Three Reasons to Gift Good Books
1. Books stir up the imagination.
This doesn’t mean a good toy doesn’t. I think a product like Lego is some of the best for stimulating imagination. My kids can sit with a pile of those colorful blocks and create wild and beautiful things for hours. But the list of toys and gadgets that offer this is short (and growing shorter). On the other hand, stories are like portals into untold worlds. They whisk kids off into lands of peril and wonder, where the laws of physics are broken and what they think about life is turned inside-out and upside-down. Good stories cause the reader to think deeply, to stretch beyond the limitations of their own world and break into new perspectives — or, as C.S. Lewis would argue in his essay On Stories, to come back into this world seeing with new eyes and appreciation the things that were always here:
“The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by ‘the veil of familiarity.’ The child enjoys his cold meat, otherwise dull to him, by pretending it is buffalo, just killed with his own bow and arrow. And the child is wise. The real meat comes back to him more savory for having been dipped in a story…by putting bread, gold, horse, apple, or the very roads into a myth, we do not retreat from reality: we rediscover it.”
But why is imagination so important? Isn’t imagination just a throwaway addition to real life? Lewis argued that “Reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.” While reason helps us process factual information and truth, our imagination helps us process meaning — and meaning is something we cannot live without as humans! We need meaning infused into everything we do, we need to make sense of the story we are living in, we are wired for it and nothing less, and we shrivel up if we lose it. Imagination helps us stitch together a more cohesive story of this world and our lives.
2. Books are better than screens.
I am not a luddite. I use technology and am thankful for what it can do to help. But I am also not ignorant to the destructive pull of screens. I’ve seen kids waste away in front of phones, tablets and TVs. Sure, there are fun shows to watch and movies to enjoy (we watch them as a family) — but if you are thinking of a gift to give, I beg you to consider a good book. A screen is filled with content you can’t often control and wouldn’t want to teach your kids. They are exposed to things they should never be exposed to and are worse off for it (I shouldn’t need to cite any evidence as it is all around nowadays, but here is a good book on this). It’s no secret that screens and apps are literally engineered to take captive, to steal and exploit your attention. They are wired to be addictive in the worst of ways. Because of this, a screen is something where you can easily isolate yourself from the world around you — it is made to suck you into its own vortex and cause you to think that what it is showing you is true reality. Books on the other hand, while they immerse you into their world, allow you to put it down and still continue to live in that adventure in the real world. Good stories can steel your spine with courage and soften your heart to love. They draw you in to push you back out, while screens often only suck and take and distort.
3. Books are better teachers.
Very few people like to be lectured to and told how to live, especially kids (though I might add adults to this as well). But there is something strange and wonderful that happens in books — even and especially with fairy-tales and great works of fiction. Somehow, through the adventures, you begin to learn and be shaped. This doesn’t happen directly but rather subconsciously, at levels we cannot see or label. You begin to observe how the characters live, what choices they make, what consequences they must endure and rewards they get to enjoy — and without even knowing it, you begin to absorb high virtues and examples of wise living. It does its job so effectively maybe because it comes slipping in through the back door, unnoticed and yet warmly received. Our guard is down, our heart is open and the seed of courage, kindness, nobility and faithfulness are planted. Good stories also help teach us new ways of living because the reader can place themselves within the life of the characters. They can see themselves in the sorrow, in the joys, in the confusion — and this bond helps to make us feel invested, which makes us think of our own lives and decisions.
Good stories can also teach us wisdom that we have lost in our modern culture (this is also why reading books from older authors is necessary). Our ancestors had an ancient wisdom that, to us modernized people, might seem outdated, but is needed more than ever. To learn from the past is to steward the present and prepare for the future. Stories help us do all of this in a powerful way.
But wait…
I can almost hear you saying as you read this: “This is great and all… but my kids are not readers.”
That’s fair. I wasn’t much of a reader at all until late in high-school. But to my awareness, this was less because I did not have the capacity for such an activity and more because the environment I grew up in was one where we didn’t do much talking about books or reading collectively together. It wasn’t valued or encouraged. I wonder what would have happened if it was… And I do have some semblance of an idea to a possibility, for we have made our home a place of books and reading good stories from the earliest of ages. Now, as they turn 10 and 13, they can’t put books down. We read at bedtime, we read in the morning, we listen to audiobooks in the car (this is a great way to get kids started on stories before they can read). It was never forced, it was just normal - and what was normal became enjoyable and desired and cherished. Your kids don’t have to reach some quota for reading per month or year - but introducing good stories into their lives at early ages will open up their eyes, hearts and minds to new worlds that few other things have the power to do.
A Short List of Books Worth Gifting
These books will fill you with wonder, make you cry, shout, feel more alive, ache and long for a better world… (And yes, these are for kids and adults, you are never too old to read a fairy-tale)
I want to send this to every family member that ever said "another book? do you want anything else" or claim I'm hard to shop for when there's always about 20 books on my list
Being gifted a book is one of the best feelings in the world, I am quite sure. Especially if it is something thoughtful.