Post by Wise Old Goat on Nov 24, 2018 10:57:06 GMT -5
I've talked about my addiction to book subscription boxes before - but since it's Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday weekend and a lot of them are having specials on right now I thought I would bring them up again in case anyone is looking for gift ideas for bookish people in their lives
These boxes are primarily young adult fantasy geared towards female readers.
My go to is Owl Crate I used to only get it if I liked the theme of it but now I get it every month. They do announce the theme and you scan skip months if you're not interested. They are a Canadian company but all of their packaging/shipping is done out of the US. They have the regular Owl Crate which is young adult and they have an Owl Crate Jr for middle grade readers (I've never gotten one of those). The books are mostly fantasy with some Sci-fi and regular fiction thrown in. Not all the books are winners but they aren't when I pick them for myself either . You can look on their webpage/instagram to see what their past boxes look like. It's one (sometimes two) hardcover new release YA book (autographed) and then bookish goodies that relate to the announced theme. Candles, bookmarks, tea, mugs, scarves, pillowcases, etc. Right now they're selling past boxes at deep discounts (their deal for new boxes was only on yesterday). The Owl Crate covers are exclusive - and usually a lot nicer than the general release ones
I've received a couple of Litjoy Crates in the past. Same kind of stuff as Owl Crate - I've found their boxes to be fantastic but the themes aren't always my thing - they're having 15% off right now (so I did order their December box). Their specialty boxes are usually exceptional and I splurge and buy the Harry Potter ones whenever they come out.
Bookish Box is a little spendy for me with the conversion/shipping rates from the US but they offer some great options. Every box comes with a tshirt - which is what makes it expensive - and I really like their t-shirts - but I tend not to order full boxes from them often because of the shipping. They do the full box which is book, shirt, goodies, and then they do book and goodies only boxes and goodies and shirt bags only. They also offer young adult and adult books - I've only ever done the YA ones. They also do specialty boxes for new hyped books - in which case you know what the book is and the goodies will relate to that (I've ordered the King of Scars box in January). These books may not all be autographed
Honourable mention to Beacon Book Box which was founded by a 14 year old boy. They're pretty new - but they're getting big enough that the Dad has gone part time at his day job to help with the box and manage all the legal stuff you need an adult for. I've only received one of their boxes so I don't feel able to speak as to overall quality but I was pleased with my items - it had maybe a little less stuff than the other boxes but - again they're pretty new on the scene and growing rapidly.
I've also ordered a Fairy Loot which is from the UK but haven't received my first box. They have shipping facilities in both the UK and the US to make it cheaper - although I think shipping would have been cheaper for me if it came from the UK . I only ordered it because I'm pretty sure I know what the book is and it came with an autographed book plate.
There are lots of bookish goody companies that don't sell books but still have monthly subscriptions/themes. One of my favourites is Nerdy Post - which is all hand lettered stuff - her December theme is Tolkien!
So I hope this is helpful My only caution would be A) do one month a time - these companies seem pretty stable for now but I thought that about Nerd Block and when they went bankrupt suddenly a lot of people who had bought a prepaid 1 year subscription were screwed. B) If you're going to order more than one in a month read the themes/book descriptions carefully because some of them will have the same book
For the most part these will all be new releases released within 30 days of the box coming out so it shouldn't be something you've already read - and it's usually easy to figure out what it is ahead of time so you can see if you're interested.