Make Books a Holiday Tradition by Lani Longshore

headshot of Lani Longshore
Lani Longshore

Giving books at Christmas is an Icelandic tradition that dates back to World War II. Import duties on paper were relatively low, so books were an economical (and available) option. The tradition took off, and now every November the Iceland Publishers Association mails a free catalog of new publications to every home in the country. What follows is a massive book-buying event, called Jolabokaflod (Yule Book Flood).

We can start our own Bay Area Book Flood, and we can start with our anthology. If you discover you haven’t bought enough copies of Voices of the Valley: Journeys, you can go to Amazon for either a physical copy or an e-book. Better yet, ask your local bookstore to special order the copy for you. You’ll be supporting our branch and local business with one transaction.

If you really want to go big with books, take a look at the list of member books displayed in the upper right of this Tri-Valley Writers website. How cool would it be to spread the news about local authors this holiday season? Best of all, you can easily get the author to autograph the copy for a personalized Christmas gift.