Want to give someone something special? UK firm Heywood Hill offers a brilliant book gift I’ve enjoyed this year.
Hands up if you love Amazon! The US mail-order giant dominates our lives. In some countries, such as Austria, consumers go to great lengths to avoid using Amazon. Elsewhere, people shrug and say the convenience outweighs their dislike of a near-monopoly supplier.
Great book gifts
So I was intrigued when a brilliant woman gave me a book gift that appears to have nothing to do with Amazon, but has delivered a series of books I loved.
The bookseller Heywood Hill, based in Mayfair, London, offers a service they call “A Year in Books“. It’s at the link. Basically, you
(i) buy a subscription – mine, a gift, is for six paperbacks at two-monthly intervals;
(ii) Heywood Hill then sends you a letter offering you a consultation on what kinds of books you like to read, and which authors you enjoy. I highlighted thrillers by writers such as Lee Child and Michael Connelly – I actually can’t remember quite what I said. If you don’t fancy filling in a form, you can do it on the phone;
(iii) they then, cleverly, choose, wrap and send you a book every two months. A selection of the ones I’ve had is in the picture above. I have enjoyed all of them.
You can watch a great video of the people in the shop explaining the book subscription service – just click on the link and scroll down.
So far the service has delivered here to Austria no problem – including, impressively, three changes of address. I’d be interested to hear if others have successfully used the service from outside the UK – I hope so!
A dark side?
Perhaps Heywood Heath has a dark side. Maybe a giant multinational owns them or they have some other sinister agenda. But although that would make a good thriller plot, it seems unlikely. So far, the service has sent me a series of intriguing book gifts. I recommend it wholeheartedly – for example, for Christmas presents for bookworms – and look forward to the next book!
Other things to read
You may wish to check out my books archive, here – for all my books.
Reading tips
For more ideas on what to read, see over 100 recommendations under my “Reading Tips” tag!
2 responses
Hi Leigh, Yes I have a subscription (my second of 12 months) here in Australia and we’ve only ever lost one book in the mail and they re-ordered the book for me and popped it in the following package. A really beautiful gift idea and the team seem wonderful.
Hi Christy great to hear! I thought it was a super scheme – not cheap but something you enjoy throughout the year.