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8797999's review against another edition
5.0
A short read, but a very enjoyable and impactful read. A book about books and reading and gifts. The gift of a book and how that can impact one's life.
Don was a friend everyone would have been lucky to have, and in a way everyone here on Goodreads who we interact with is our own Don, gifting us new reads with the new books we are exposed to through our updates.
Thanks to this book, I have two new ones to read and I hope enjoy (from his five books he gifts to others I have read three and thoroughly enjoyed them).
A great little read and love letter about books and their impact.
When I read 'A Time of Gifts' I will give thanks to both Don and Robert Macfarlane.
Don was a friend everyone would have been lucky to have, and in a way everyone here on Goodreads who we interact with is our own Don, gifting us new reads with the new books we are exposed to through our updates.
Thanks to this book, I have two new ones to read and I hope enjoy (from his five books he gifts to others I have read three and thoroughly enjoyed them).
A great little read and love letter about books and their impact.
When I read 'A Time of Gifts' I will give thanks to both Don and Robert Macfarlane.
zoesinclair's review
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
A short essay on the joys of reading and gifting books.
For such a small book, it really packs a punch. This was such an interesting take to read, especially as someone who loves giving books as gifts. MacFarlane explores this idea through his relationship with his friend Don, as they gift books to each other over the course of their friendship. Reading about the different contexts in which they were gifting books (in gratitude, in apology, in sympathy), was so interesting, especially when we consider how as a capitalist society the idea of a gift economy is so alien to us. MacFarlane also talks about having a supply of several copies of some of his favourite books so that he always has something on hand to give to people, which is such a good idea! This book itself would be a great gift to give to someone, and will definitely be on my list of recommendations for people who like reading books about books.
📖 “‘Reading kept him alive,’ she said, ‘Right till the end.’” 📖
📖 “‘Reading kept him alive,’ she said, ‘Right till the end.’” 📖
rolfesque's review
5.0
Beautiful essay I could relate to very much, an ode to the love of books and reading and the giving of presents (books of course).
Fittingly I received it as a present from a friend who likes to read as well.
Fittingly I received it as a present from a friend who likes to read as well.
lottemarleen's review against another edition
5.0
A beautiful essay on how giving and receiving books can impact someone's life. Highly recommend.
jwsg's review
4.0
A lovely lovely essay on the books Robert Macfarlane had been gifted with, which had moved him and "spoken to 'commandingly' to [his] soul", and which, in turn, compelled him to give away as many books as possible, in the hope that they will touch the recipient in some way. I loved this section in the essay:
" There are five books that I give away again and again, and they are among the books that have struck me most forcefully. I try to make sure that I always have several copies stockpiled, ready to hand out. When I find a copy of one of them in a bookshop, I buy it to add to the gift pile, knowing that the right recipient will come along sooner or later. The five books are Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (care has to be taken with that one, I admit), A Time of Gifts...J.A. Baker's The Peregrine and Nan Shepherd's The Living Mountain."
That Macfarlane recounted how he gave a copy of The Living Mountain to a Singaporean, Samuel, who was "escap[ing] some kind of problem in his life" and who Macfarlane encountered in the Lairig Ghru in October 2013, was a bonus snippet.
Another lovely snippet:
"During the solitary months and years spent writing a book, it can be easy to forget that it will - if you are lucky - live a social life: that your book might enter the imaginations and memories of its readers and thrive there, that your book might be crammed into pockets or backpacks and carried up mountains or to foreign countries, or that your book might be given by one person to another. Perhaps the aspect of authorship I cherish most are the glimpses I get of how my books are themselves carried, or are themselves given. When I sign books after reading, people frequently want their copies inscribed as gifts. Would you make this out to my mother, who loves mountains?...to my brother, who lives in Calcutta?....to my best friend, who is ill?...to my father, who is no longer able to walk as far as he would wish...? Several times I've been asked to inscribe books to young children who can't yet read: We want to give this book to them now, so it's waiting for them when they're ready for it." What a lovely idea.
As one might expect from an essay on books that the author had gifted or had been gifted to, that had a profound impact on him, one emerges with new additions to one's to-read list. I added the following:
- Ezra Pound's translations of classical Chinese poetry (this was new to me!)
- A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor
- The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd
- The Peregrine by J.A. Baker
" There are five books that I give away again and again, and they are among the books that have struck me most forcefully. I try to make sure that I always have several copies stockpiled, ready to hand out. When I find a copy of one of them in a bookshop, I buy it to add to the gift pile, knowing that the right recipient will come along sooner or later. The five books are Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (care has to be taken with that one, I admit), A Time of Gifts...J.A. Baker's The Peregrine and Nan Shepherd's The Living Mountain."
That Macfarlane recounted how he gave a copy of The Living Mountain to a Singaporean, Samuel, who was "escap[ing] some kind of problem in his life" and who Macfarlane encountered in the Lairig Ghru in October 2013, was a bonus snippet.
Another lovely snippet:
"During the solitary months and years spent writing a book, it can be easy to forget that it will - if you are lucky - live a social life: that your book might enter the imaginations and memories of its readers and thrive there, that your book might be crammed into pockets or backpacks and carried up mountains or to foreign countries, or that your book might be given by one person to another. Perhaps the aspect of authorship I cherish most are the glimpses I get of how my books are themselves carried, or are themselves given. When I sign books after reading, people frequently want their copies inscribed as gifts. Would you make this out to my mother, who loves mountains?...to my brother, who lives in Calcutta?....to my best friend, who is ill?...to my father, who is no longer able to walk as far as he would wish...? Several times I've been asked to inscribe books to young children who can't yet read: We want to give this book to them now, so it's waiting for them when they're ready for it." What a lovely idea.
As one might expect from an essay on books that the author had gifted or had been gifted to, that had a profound impact on him, one emerges with new additions to one's to-read list. I added the following:
- Ezra Pound's translations of classical Chinese poetry (this was new to me!)
- A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor
- The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd
- The Peregrine by J.A. Baker