Reads on Repeat
I have subscriptions for nearly everything in my life – Hubble for my contacts, Harry’s for my razors, Hairstory for my shampoo, and about a million other auto-delivery services that don’t start with the letter H (!!!) So recently, I decided to broaden my horizons beyond personal care products to include subscriptions to the things I love most – books. Because as much as I love picking out fiction for myself, I’m not immune to the charms of having the choosing done for me.
Below are the three book subscription services I’ll be entrusting my reading to in 2018:
Greenlight First Editions Club
Once a month, Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn chooses a hardcover first-edition novel for members of its First Editions Club, gets the author to sign them, and then wraps each novel in kraft paper with your name on it like some deliciously illicit surprise. Picking my package up each month and tearing into it savagely the moment I’ve stepped foot outside the store is the happiest recurring errand I’ve ever run. I’ve been a member since October, and here’s my haul so far:
- Manhattan Beach / Jennifer Egan
- Fresh Complaint / Jeffrey Eugenides
- Future Home of the Living God / Louise Erdrich
- Green / Sam Graham Felsen
As with many purchases in my life, the seeds of this one were planted on Instagram, where a bevy of book bloggers began posting unboxing videos on behalf of Capsule Books, a company that traffics in quarterly “book boxes curated based on a certain feeling.” The capsules' contents are a surprise, though snoopy control freaks like me can preview one of the books before buying. Past capsule themes include The Call of the Void (Murakami and Miranda July!) and Flaner (Hemingway and Colette!),
After weeks of being followed around social media by its ads, I succumbed to the call of targeted marketing and ordered a capsule of my own. And because I was making my purchase during an intense early-January snowstorm I followed my mood straight to the Frozen Over-themed capsule. It arrived yesterday and here’s what was inside:
- Lullaby / Chuck Palahniuk
- On Love / Charles Bukowski
- The Martian Chronicles / Ray Bradbury
- A lovely handwritten note detailing why the books were chosen, what they signify, and what order to read them in (start with the Palahniuk). I’m a bit bemused that the best thing to read when feeling frozen over is apparently three testosterone-heavy books about lust, dead babies, and outer space, but I trust the fine folks at Capsule not to steer me wrong.
The Book Hookup is The Strand’s quarterly book subscription service, and in true Strand form it is expansive, with box themes ranging from Art & Photography to Political Non-Fiction to Feminist Literature. My Mom got me a yearlong fiction subscription for Christmas, and my first box arrived last week. Here’s what I got:
- The Revolution of Marina M. / Janet Fitch
- Nada / Carmen Laforet
- A strangely addictive vanilla-flavored black tea, which all my preferences and prior history suggest I’d hate but it turns out I love
- Tote bags, magnets, buttons, postcards, and other Strand ephemera. Need a random pop-socket promoting BookCon? I’m your girl.
There are so many book subscription services out there – YA ones, mystery ones, even ones that come with candles and bubble bath. Have you tried any of them? If so, let me know in the comments below.