Christmas Gifts--books & such! What to buy?

Gift cards from Amazon and Barnes and Nobles-- I love them! Let's face it, at my age I don't really "need" anything...household has been functioning for years and if I need a new potholder, I'll go buy one! Clothing--no way I'm too picky! Jewelry and perfume--how much does a girl need? But books, movies, etc...that is another thing! I just recieved a $50 gift card from Amazon and it took me all of 7 minutes to spend it! What did I buy?

11-23-63 by Stephen King-for Kindle
Gaia's Garden of Permaculture-Toby Hemenway-hardback
A Gift Upon The Shore-M.K. Wren-hardback
The George Eliot Collection (bought for Middlemarch and Silas Marner, but 3 other works included)-for Kindle

And still have a couple bucks left! Am one happy camper. Of course, these are now in my TBR pile..but only 5-6 down on the list!

Do you like tyour Kindle? I have a co-worker who absolutely swears by hers, but, I don't know, I 'm still in love with the physical book.

I loved A Gift upon the Shore, I hope you will as well.

bks1953 - I wasn't sure about the Kindle myself but bought one because I had a lot of PDFs and the bigger Kindle dx was the perfect device to read them.

Now, I wouldn't be without my Kindle. I use the text-to-speech option for when I am on my elliptical trainer. It holds hundreds of books and the huge books weigh as little as a small book.

I thought I would miss the feel of an actual book but I don't even notice. I get lost in the words and the medium becomes unimportant.

I am listening to 11/22/63 on audio, but I bought it for my husband (hardcover) for Christmas, I'm getting near the end and already I know it's one of the my best ever reads! I'm not usually a Stephen King reader, but since I'm a big fan of time travel I wanted to get this, it's really a terrific novel!

I, too, thought I would not enjoy an e-reader. I loved the feel and smell of books. I liked the jackets, especially. However, now I don't know how I ever got along without one! I have a Kindle and love it. I have at least 30 books loaded into it now, I can take notes, write down a great sentence or quote, and it is kept right in my Kindle! The text to speech option is great, if you can't physically read, like when I had a splitting heachace. It's very mechanical though, so don't expect any expression, etc, but it did get me through about 100 pages of Dicken's Bleak House. Best of all: have books will travel in a very small size...has all my reference books, took, 2 dictionaries, thesaurus and 2 editions of the Bible. Love it, love it, love it!

Tess - I only recently started using the text-to-speech option on my Kindle. I get on my elliptical trainer every day and rather than watch TV, I have it read to me. I find the time goes much faster than if I was watching TV. I read Dracula that way and I am currently reading Vera with the text-to-speech.

Canadian, yes, once I got used to the mechanical speech, I did indeed like the text to speech, especially for "older" reads like Dickens, etc. I took my Kindle to the beach and had headphone and did text to speech, about 300 pages worth lying in the sun, didn't have to open my eyes--it was wonderful!

Jim, it was one of the best books I have read, ever! The words were so hauntingly beautiful.

Glad to hear it. If you have a hard back with a dust jacket, look inside the dust jacket, if you haven't already.

Oh, I have seen the inside the partial list of "books saved." Am going to check out a few of those and perhaps add to my TBR pile!

It just bends my mind a little that A Gift upon the Shore is listed as one of the books they saved!

Yes, I noticed that and also another book by the same author!