What do book lovers like best during the holidays? A book! We can be difficult to buy for, people aren’t sure what books we have or what books we want. IndieBound has the perfect solution, your own book Wish List.
I recently set up my list. It was simple:
- Click on My Book Lists on the header (I already had a profile, if you don’t it’s required and simple to set up),
- Type the title/author/ISBN # for the book you want,
- When the picture pops up, click on the Add to this Book List button and presto, there it is on the list!
There are a couple of neat bells and whistles – I could rank the books I wanted in order by designated which book was to be the first on the list, which the last, and then moving the others up and down one position at a time. I put the books I don’t have to read for book groups or other commitments first and then the ones I know I’ll buy for myself last. I can also write a note up to 250 characters to attach to each book (such as “please, please, please buy this for me”). And, for those of us who love our local bookstores, the list includes a link to a favorite local store for easy online ordering. Buy from the store and have the book shipped to the recipient. Or, find your own local store using IndieBound’s store locator function.
There are two ways people can access your list, either you can e-mail the list to someone (there is a button that will send the list on its way and room to add a message, such as “please, please, please buy this for me”) or anyone can access it via your profile. That’s a good reason to use your name as your log in, make it easy for people to find you and your wish list. Unfortunately, the login didn’t have enough spaces for my long name, so I’m Kim Allen-Niese. Just part of the price I pay for hyphenating my name.
I wanted to see how the list worked once a book was purchased. Luckily I’m married to a good sport who agreed to buy my number one choice, Wolf Hall. He loved how easy it was to buy the book. Just a few clicks and he’s done, well, with this purchase. The book is waiting for him at our local store, he even requested that it be gift wrapped. One downside is that my wish list didn’t automatically update the fact that Wolf Hall was purchased, I had to go in and delete it myself.
Check out my list, tell me what you think I should add (my husband will appreciate the help) and set up your own!
Remember, if you buy two books at an independent bookstore by the end of the year, you are a Holiday Helper and can qualify to win an ABA Gift Card. You can use it to buy the one book everyone forgot to give you.
Claire
Kim
