It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It may seem hard to believe - but Christmas is indeed just around the corner, at barely 8 weeks away. Shops may be cluttered now with Halloween paraphernalia, fireworks for Bonfire Night, and Thanksgiving delicacies, but several shop windows already have Christmas trees and home decorations front row and centre. It's common within the beauty industry, too, to have 'Christmas in July' showcases so that journalists can already have Christmas issues ready to go even before October. And as someone whose first baby is due today (!) I have already been making Christmas cards and buying presents, anticipating that in the blur of life with a newborn it will soon be the last thing on my mind.

Luckily, Literary Book Gifts has got you covered for all the bibliophiles in your life (including that awkward uncle who can sometimes be hard to buy for). Looking through the website, I found all kinds of goodies that you could either pair with a book or would make excellent standalone gifts.

Say your awkward uncle is on the especially erudite side. You could team a T-shirt themed around the work of Descartes or Machiavelli with a copy of one of the works of the great man - giving you options even if your intended receiver does not enjoy fiction. Scientist? Try Darwin's Tree of Life or Gray's Anatomy. Artist? Michelangelo's got you covered. Hipster? It's #typewriter time! Or just a grumpy old git? I especially liked the slightly sinister The End T-shirt, which reminded me of the time when my sister and I were watching the Disney movie of Peter Pan and, come the closing credits, my grandad walked past and said "This is my favourite part!" 

You don't even have to start with Christmas if you don't want to. If you have any male friends with Halloween birthdays, look no further than the range of creepy T-shirts, featuring illustrations alluding to Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Heart of Darkness, or the works of Edgar Allan Poe, to name just a few. 

If you're after a more discreet design, there are always T-shirts like this (available for both women and men) which combine the quirky, fun and literary, without naming the book outright:

Virtually all of the designs, in fact, seem to be available for both men and women, so you're sorted regardless of what type of book your recipient enjoys. Literary Book Gifts' range is extensive both in the titles the products reference and in the design styles - and there are a variety of colours available too. T-shirt wise my personal favourites, if I were buying for me, included one alluding to Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn, and the T-shirt transcribing Emily Dickinson's Hope Is The Thing With Feathers (what with these and the Whitman design, there's plenty for poetry-lovers!), as well as the wonderfully subtle Beethoven design (perfect for any musicians amongst your friends and family). All designs are created in-house and printed professionally, meaning you are getting a high-quality gift that won't disappoint, whether for Christmas, birthdays, or "just because".

Sizing and fit wise, you don't have to worry. The guide shows that women's designs are available for a 34-inch chest and up, with men's shirts going all the way up to a 50-inch diameter. (Measurements for tank tops and hoodies are also listed, although sadly none seem to be available at the moment.) Once I've made a purchase myself, I'll report back in terms of comfort as well.

But what if you have enough T-shirts? If you are buying a book for your loved one, what better wrapping than a tote bag? These come in small, medium and large sizes for added flexibility, with the price scaled accordingly - meaning you can watch your seasonal spending budget easily. My favourite designs here include the Jane Austen (which features the great lady's desk), the fabulously elegant Marcel Proust (whose swan design perhaps alludes to Book 1, entitled Swann's Way?), and the bold Don Quixote (especially meaningful to me as I've recently purchased a Quentin Blake print that also comes from this novel).

All of these products ship worldwide from the US at very reasonable rates - I'm located in Europe, so would have to pay the $10 flat rate (excluding any taxes/customs duties your country charges), but I have had to pay much more than this for postage of products even within Europe in the past, so consider this to be good value. And best of all? With 20% off your order thanks to an exclusive Bianca's Book Blog discount code (BiancasBookBlog20) that has no minimum purchase required, you can get your shopping sorted as of right now. You can thank me later. And Merry Christmas!








(This post was requested by the owner of Literary Book Gifts, but was not paid for in products or money, or sponsored in any other way.)

Bookish Bits and Bobs: A Journey Into A Digital World

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With Fathers' Day on the approach in several countries, including in Britain and France, the mad scramble is starting for gifts and cards. Having already recommended on Twitter the other week that Richard Hammond's autobiography "On The Edge" would make an excellent choice of present for many a father, I got thinking about other book recommendations. I have already passed on a copy of Paul French's recent release, "Midnight In Peking", to my own father, as it's a superb historical thriller that takes us on an exciting analytical tour of China in a tragic "whodunnit" case that would appeal to many men (and indeed women) for the mystery that surrounds it, going back 100 years to resuscitate the evidence and finally bring justice. For dads who are into Photoshop and new media, there is also a host of literature on this subject, from authors such as Christiane Paul (author of Digital Art) and Susan Tuttle (who penned Digital Expressions in 2010).

But sometimes the best gift is just time with your dad. I know that either of my parents would probably give their right arms to spend time with their own fathers again. And even if your dad isn't into editing photos and creating websites himself, he may well be interested in a more modern age of art nonetheless - and what better way to indulge than visiting a digital art exhibition together this weekend? While America is arguably better equipped for this than us, with our Yankee brothers boasting digital art museums in Los Angeles and Austin to name just a few, there are plenty of options within the UK. The Waterman International Festival of Digital Art, in celebration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, is running until October in Brentford (postcode TW8 0DS), in conjunction with seminars organised by Goldsmiths, University of London. Each installation will only come alive when people interact with it, and the exhibition's aim is to bring together artists from around the world, as well as exploring and questioning audience engagement with digital art. The current exhibition seminar (until July 8) is entitled Granular Graph, and takes an interdisciplinary approach combining art, science, music, and more. 

If it's raining (which, let's face it, it probably is), there are also plenty of online exhibitions, such as Print Fiction, which runs until June 24th, and the UK Crafts Council exhibitions, which can be accessed here. Online galleries are just another logical step in digital art's surprisingly long history; as well as exhibitions that finished in 2012 in locations as diverse as Hanoi, London and Sheffield, there's also evidence of a San Diego show that took place in 2007, and even a San Francisco show that took place in 2001.

Viral video by ebuzzing

If all of this does inspire you - or your dad - to create some digital art of your own, Designboom/INFINITI's International Digital Art Competition should prove a perfect outlet for your talents and interests. Inspired by the theme 'Curved Visions', as a follow-up to their first theme of 'Inspired Performance', the results will be exhibited at various INFINITI Centres across Europe. The winner of the first round was perhaps unsurprisingly from Japan, where digital art has already achieved a cult following. Shinji Nukumi was announced as the winner and awarded the first prize of €10,000 in Marseilles.

Even if it seems daunting, do not panic! It is stressed that participation is open to applicants worldwide, whether you are a professional or student. As long as you are enthusiastic about design, that is the main thing - and to me, that sounds like a great Fathers' Day project to develop your daddy-daughter or father-son relationship throughout the rest of 2012 and beyond.