Our staff share the worst literary gifts they’ve ever received, or given. And also the best (see here)…

I remember unwrapping a hardback edition of Roget’s Thesaurus the Christmas after I turned nine. This was the year that I perfected the art of hiding my feelings. I loved books and I loved reading but when I was nine I wanted the Careless Whisper 7” or a Care Bear, not 325,000 words and phrases. But if that sounds ungrateful, it’s worth pointing out that the thirty-year-old thesaurus is still on my shelf.
– Emily

One of my younger brothers has been drawing since he could hold a pencil, so once when I was hurriedly passing through Narita airport I picked up a Manga for him. Having only flicked through in a perfunctory fashion, one eye on the clock, to check that the plot seemed appropriate (gender-balanced adventure: check), it wasn’t until I looked at it more thoroughly on the plane that I realised it could be construed as graphic in slightly more than one sense of the term!
– Elke

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
– Three anonymous booksellers

Whatever the season, my sister loves to buy me bad-taste reads, frequently of the romance department. My understanding is she selects them based on titles (‘The Italian Billionaire’s Secretary Mistress’; ‘Dating Dr Delicious’) and covers (‘Is there a shirtless man?’ ‘Is there a kilt?’) and whichever will embarrass me the most. It perhaps goes without saying that this tradition is something I secretly love.
– Bronte

I was halfway through reading a book I thought my aunt might like (I had her in our family’s Kris Kringle) and so I bought another copy of the book to give to her. But in my last-minute Christmas Eve rush of wrapping presents and packing things up to travel several hours to my parent’s house for Christmas dinner, I wrapped the wrong book. My aunt opened her present in front of everyone and said ‘Oh. There’s a bookmark in it.’ And there was the rather battered looking copy of the book I had been reading, along with the dirty old tram ticket I was using as a bookmark sticking out of the top. It was pretty embarrassing, and no one quite believed me that I had a fresh copy back at home for her.
– Nina

If you’re on the hunt for gifts this Christmas, check out out gift guides here.