I recently saw a post on Instagram by the poet Maggie Smith with an alternative Christmas present idea that I’m secretly hoping someone – my husband perhaps?* – will also see and do for me. Smith’s idea was that you could pre-order books you think that person would like for the first four months of the year.
*Unlikely, he is very much not on Instagram. In fact, he has a minor breakdown every time I try to show him something on the app.
I am a big fan of pre-ordering books. At this point in my life, pre-ordering books is practically my love language.
It’s not just for the fact that pre-orders are important for authors, as they all count towards the first week sales AND are taken into account by book retailers when it comes to how many copies they’ll stock, which in turn affects how prominently a book might be placed in shops/whether you’ll even see it in your local bookshop etc. (It’s basically a vote of confidence in that author or book, which therefore makes me feel warm and fuzzy when I do it.)
No, in truth, I mainly pre-order because I immediately forget I’ve done it, and then get a delicious book-shaped surprise in the post when I least expect it. Also, on a less whimsical note, it takes away a certain amount of decision-fatigue when it comes to what to read next.
Here are five things I’ve pre-ordered for 2023…
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