10 Tips on Buying Books for a Total Book Nerd (If You’re Not One)

Ask Ginni, our resident Literary Lady, anything you want to know about reading and relationships! She’ll comb the books and wrack her brains to help you out with your page-turning problems, your wordy woes, and your novel nuisances. Fire away, Bookworms!
Dear Literary Lady,
I want to buy a book for a girl I’m dating, but I’m not a big reader and she is. How do I pick out a book she’ll like? Should I just buy her a scarf instead?
–T.W.
Dear T.W.,
Definitely buy her a book! There’s nothing sweeter than someone taking the time to learn about something you like that they’re not familiar with.
I know that the sheer variety and number of books in the bookstore can be mind-boggling, but it can all be narrowed down very quickly and very easily once you know her literary tastes. With a little reconnaissance and research, finding THE right book for someone is easy, even if you’re not a big reader yourself.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to buying books for others, even if you’re not a big reader yourself:
1. Figure out what books they like. Ask them straight out, or if that would arouse suspicion, ask them what books they recommend.
2. Peruse their bookshelf. What books do they own? Do they own a bunch of books by the same author? Remember the name of that author.
3. Find out what they’re reading at the moment.
4. Go to a bookstore with them and see what they browse when left to their own devices. Do they head straight to the mysteries and thrillers? The recent bestsellers? Are they YA buffs?
5. Now that you know what they like to read, start doing your research. Ask around for recommended reading and look online for bestsellers in their favorite genre.
6. Browse the B&N Book Blog for recommendations based on books you know they like.
7. Research authors who are comparable to or contemporaries of authors they like. Are they a Hemingway fan? Then they might be interested in the works of his friends, like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and John Dos Passos.
8. Worried about buying a book they’ve already read? Stick with new releases to be safe—or buy an edition of an old classic so gorgeous they’ll want to read it again.
9. Ask a Barnes & Noble bookseller for recommendations! Tell them what authors your friend likes to read, tell them what books your friend recently read and adored, and tell them what sections they browse whenever they come into the store.
10. When you think you’ve found a good book to give them, read the back cover, read the review blurbs, and read the inside cover pages for more reviews. Do you think they’ll like it?
Whatever you do, buy the book and don’t buy her a scarf! A scarf says, “I know nothing about you except that you like the color blue, so I got you a blue scarf.” A book, on the other hand, says, “I put a lot of thought and effort into discovering your literary tastes and I hope you enjoy this novel that I painstakingly picked out for you.”  If it’s the thought that counts when it comes to gifts—you’ll win over the girl with a good book every time.
Love and paperbacks,
Literary Lady