10 gift ideas for artists, writers, and other creative weirdos
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| Hey y’all, Here’s a list of ideas for holiday gifts or treats for yourself. Most of it is pulled from the gear I use here in the studio: My books make excellent stocking stuffers! The book I think would be the most help to almost anybody in the next year is Keep Going, my guide to staying creative in chaotic times. The hardcover of my million-seller Steal Like an Artist and the matching journal are perennial favorites, especially for younger people. Show Your Work! is for people trying to get their work noticed or their business going. If you know an audiobook lover, you can get the whole trilogy for the cost of one book. If you want a “deep cut” for the true weirdo on your list, gift a copy of my CIA-does-haiku poetry collection, Newspaper Blackout. (If you’d like my books signed and personalized for the holidays, order by December 11th from my friends at Bookpeople.)
Buy my books
Books I didn’t write: the doorstopper of the year for creative people is probably Adam Moss’s The Work of Art. Lovers of notebooks will love Roland Allen’s The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper. A book that helped me quite a bit was Katherine Morgan Schaffer’s The Perfectionist’s Guide To Losing Control. We’re all going to need Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny next year. A24’s Hey Kids, Watch This! was a fun help for picking our pizza night movies with the kids. (I also love Ty Burr’s The Best Old Movies for Families.) Also great: a gift card from your local independent bookstore.
Notebooks: Keeping a diary is my most fulfilling creative practice, but it can be hard for people to get started and keep one going. For that reason, I’m a big fan of the 5-year diary format, where you just write one line a day. I use this Tamara Shopsin-designed notebook for a commonplace quote diary, but I got both of my kids this canvas one line a day diary and they love it and write in it every night. (My own personal “notebook turducken” is a Zequenz ruled A5 flexible for my diary and sketchbook, a hardcover Moleskine pocket Daily Planner for my logbook, and a Leuchtturm 1917 pocket squared notebook for carrying around and scribbling notes. I also get a lot of good ideas when I’m soaking, so I keep a pad of Aqua Notes in the shower and a Rite in the Rain spiral notebook beside the pool.)
Writing tools: The Pentel Portable Pocket Brush pen is the most magical pen I own. I buy them in bulk, but they last forever so I rarely have to replace them. I love them so much I hacked them to do color using Lamy fountain inks and Pelikan highlighter ink. (My other favorite inky implements: Pilot G-2 Bolds, Pentel Sign Pens, and Posca paint markers.) My very favorite pencil is the dark and soft Musgrave 600 NEWS. For true pencil nerds, get them a set of Derwent pencil extenders. A cute but mighty pencil sharpener is the Carl Angel-5. (Last year my elementary-aged kids somehow didn’t know that mechanical pencils existed, so we got them a set of these very affordable Paper Mate triangular mechanical pencils and they use them all the time at school and at home.)
Art with office supplies: When I post photos of my notebook, so many people comment on the date stamps! I love this Trodat professional self-inking date stamp. It makes the most satisfying “KACHUNK” sound ever. I also love their self-inking DIY stamp kits — I have a bunch of these and use them for custom return addresses and other messages. (Bonus: A collage/zine-making kit: put some old magazines in with a cutting mat, a set of X-Acto knives, some orange-handled Fiskar scissors, a bone folder, and UHU glue sticks.)
Ear candy: We own a couple of Wonderboom bluetooth speakers — we keep one in the kitchen and bring one out by the pool in the summer. (Also featured in Robin Sloan’s excellent gift guide.) If you don’t have the space or budget for a full surround sound system for watching movies and TV, I highly recommend one of these VIZIO soundbar systems. (I got ours for cheap at Costco.)
Puzzling: I loved Julia Turshen’s holiday hack: “If you don’t like cooking with people, you can set up a 1000 piece puzzle in another room and tell them they’re not allowed in the kitchen until the puzzle is done.” This Thanksgiving our whole family solved “The Awakened Artifacts” from Magic Puzzle Company and we had a total blast. A new holiday break tradition was born!
Kids’ gifts: Our boys love book series like Horrible Science, Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, and I Survived. They love to write in their 5-year diaries with these retractable cat gel pens. They like squishy squeeze toys. They also, oddly, love Post-It Notes? They will stick notes for us and themselves all over the house. We resisted getting them an e-reader for a long time, but our oldest loves his Kindle Paperwhite for Kids and reads it all the time in middle school. (I recently talked to The Strategist and The Daily Dad about my favorite book to gift little kids: James Marshall’s George & Martha: The Complete Stories.)
Print subscriptions: I am a huge fan these days of quarterly-ish print magazines like The Believer and The Idler. Just the right amount of reading. (There are great magazines for kids, too, like Okido and Illustoria.)
Finally, I’m offering 20% off paid subscriptions to this newsletter until December 25th! A paid subscription gets you bonus Tuesday letters and membership in a community of thousands of creative, interesting, and kind folks. If you know somebody who should be in our crew, sign ‘em up! And if you yourself have been waiting to join, now’s the time:
Give a gift subscription
Thanks for reading. This is a hand-rolled, algorithm-free, completely reader-supported publication. If you happen to have year-end budget that you’re looking to burn, buy some books in bulk for the whole office or hire me to speak to your organization!
xoxo,
Austin PS. We have a couple of t-shirts available through Cotton Bureau. You can get free shipping until Monday with the code EXTRAGRAVY at checkout. (I swear someday I will get an actual merch and prints shop going again.) You're currently a free subscriber to Austin Kleon. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. Upgrade to paid | |
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