by Jude Feldman
Happy holidays, everyone! I'd like to start the annual Gift Guide with a big ol' THANK YOU to all of you who have kept us going 15 years and beyond. We are grateful for your support, and humbled to be part of such a vibrant, cheerful, and important community. So, thanks.
The gift-giving season is quickly swooping down upon us with its great shadowy black wings, and Borderlands is here to help you find the perfect gift for every elf, fairy, shoggoth, and wizard on your list. (And the plain-old human readers on that list will probably be very happy, too.)
Let me first mention that we have a whole bunch of amazing local authors who are happy to personalize their books for your gift-giving pleasure. Terry Bisson, Chaz Brenchley, S.G. Browne, Gail Carriger, Richard Kadrey, Seanan McGuire, Rudy Rucker, and Scott Sigler have all volunteered to inscribe books. You can purchase and pick up personalized books here, or if the recipients are far away, we're happy to do mail orders, so consider which of the fans in your life would be most tickled by having their name actually written in a book by the author! The deadline to order inscribed books to be shipped in time for Christmas is December 14th; the deadline to request inscribed books for in-store pickup is December 19th.
Unless you've been hiding under a hill, you know it's Hobbit Season. Borderlands is your One-Stop Hobbit Shop, (say that three times, quickly) with gorgeous editions of THE HOBBIT to fit every taste and budget. We have more than a dozen different formats; everything from the pocket-sized paperback ($8.99), to the 75th Anniversary edition (Trade Paperback, $13.95) to the hardcover with Tolkien's original intended cover art ($25), to THE ANNOTATED HOBBIT (Oversized Hardcover, $30). With the movie coming out, this is the perfect time to either revisit this classic or take a new generation "there and back again".
Speaking of classics, we have beautiful, hardcover, gift-worthy volumes of all of your old favorites: DUNE ($29.95), ENDER'S GAME ($27.95), THE PRINCESS BRIDE ($25), GOOD OMENS ($29.99), THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION ($24), THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS ($21.99), and far too many others to mention. We also have a special price for one of my favorite anthologies of all time: SHELF LIFE: FANTASTIC STORIES CELEBRATING BOOKSTORES, edited by Greg Ketter of the venerable Dreamhaven Books in Minneapolis. SHELF LIFE has stories by Ramsey Campbell, Charles de Lint, Harlan Ellison, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Jack Williamson, Gene Wolfe, and many more, with an introduction by Neil Gaiman, and right now it's only $10!
If your gift-ee just has to have the newest and the latest, we recommend RED COUNTRY by Joe Abercrombie (Hardcover, $25.99) (my favorite in his series so far, and a classic Western despite its fantasy trappings), THE HYDROGEN SONATA (the new culture novel!) by Iain M. Banks (Hardcover, $25.99), THE TWELVE (follow-up to THE PASSAGE) by Justin Cronin (Hardcover, $28), CAPTAIN VORPATRIL'S ALLIANCE by Lois McMaster Bujold and Ryan Sear (Hardcover, $26), THE FIFTY-YEAR SWORD by Mark Z. Danielewski (Hardcover, $26), THE CASUAL VACANCY by J.K. Rowling ($35), or signed copies of PIRATE CINEMA by Cory Doctorow (Hardcover, $19.99). I'd also like to call your attention specially to THE EMPEROR'S SOUL by Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications, Trade Paperback, $14.95), a short stand-alone novel set in the world of ELANTRIS, and a really gorgeous new 2-volume Ursula K. LeGuin story collection called THE UNREAL AND THE REAL from Small Beer Press (Hardcover, each volume $24).
We've got calendars galore, from A Calendar of Bunny Suicides ($13.99) to Views From the Hubble Telescope ($14.99) and pretty much everything in between, BUT you should particularly hear about the perfect one for the racy reader in your life: this is the Literary Pin-up Calendar (Worldbuilders, $20)! It's a calendar of fantasy pin-ups from artist Lee Moyer, immortalizing characters from works by Peter S. Beagle, Ray Bradbury, Patricia Briggs, Jacqueline Carey, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss and many others. This calendar is a win-win, because it's a super-cool gift and all the proceeds go to support Worldbuilders, the charity Patrick Rothfuss founded. <http://thetinkerspacks.bigcartel.com/about-us> (Worldbuilders is a not-for-profit organization of geeks and writers and artists and readers interested in making the world a better place. Once a year they run a fundraiser to raise money for Heifer International: "Heifer International's mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth." <http://www.heifer.org/ourwork/mission> They provide cows and chickens and goats and many, many other animals to help make poor and hungry people all over the world self-sufficient.) We've even got just a few copies left that were signed by Mr. Rothfuss himself, so this calendar makes a perfect present both for someone you know, and someone you'll never meet.
Super-popular books at the moment are David Mitchell's CLOUD ATLAS (Hardcover, $23, and Trade Paperback, $15), Ernest Cline's READY PLAYER ONE (Trade Paperback, $14), and THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern, (Trade paperback, $15). I'd also suggest Charles Yu's meta HOW TO LIVE SAFELY IN A SCIENCE FICTIONAL UNIVERSE (Trade Paperback, $14.95) and the simply amazing short story collection STORIES OF YOUR LIFE AND OTHERS by Ted Chiang (Trade Paperback, $16).
Old and new favorites that will work for almost anyone: THE RHINOCEROS WHO QUOTED NIETZSCHE by Peter S. Beagle (Trade Paperback, $15.95), THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME edited by Robert Silverberg (Trade Paperback, $19.99), and MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN by Ransom Riggs (Hardcover, $17.99).
For the George R.R. Martin fan in your life, there's the absolutely breathtaking LANDS OF ICE AND FIRE: MAPS FROM KING'S LANDING TO ACROSS THE NARROW SEA by illustrator and cartographer Jonathan Roberts, (Bantam, $40). You really must see these to believe them, and they will enrich the experience of any fan of the Ice and Fire books. Jeremy Lassen, Borderlands' first employee, who introduced us all to the Song of Ice and Fire books way back in 1998, was so taken with the maps that he had the map of Westeros gorgeously framed for his house.
As usual, we wish you a Gorey Christmas with a plethora of Edward Gorey-themed items. From the classic Gashlycrumb Tinies (Undersized Hardcover, $10) to the brand-new Bibliophile With Cats Puzzle ($10.95), we have a little bit of Gorey to suit anyone. My personal favorite is the "Fruitcake" holiday card ($2.95) that shows the solemn ritual of everyone gathering after dark to throw their fruitcakes into a hole in the ice!
In (hopefully) unrelated news, zombies are also The In Thing this year. Check out S.G. Browne's I SAW ZOMBIES EATING SANTA CLAUS (Hardcover, $14.99), for example. We've also got copies of the soon-to-be-a-movie WORLD WAR Z (Trade Paperback, $14.95) and THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE (Trade Paperback, $14.99) by Max Brooks, pretty much guaranteed to keep you up until New Year's. For fans of Mira Grant's FEED (Mass Market, $9.99), we have the brand-new WHEN WILL YOU RISE? (Signed, Limited Edition (1000 copies) Hardcover, $38), a trio of short stories set in FEED's zombie-plagued world, including the origin of the entire mess. There's also PAT THE ZOMBIE by Aaron Ximm ($11.99), a sick & twisted take on the children's book PAT THE BUNNY, and THE LIVING DEAD vols. 1 and 2 edited by John Joseph Adams (Trade Paperbacks, $15.99 each).
As always, we're happy to make personalized recommendations and practice our Psychic Bookseller Skills when you're stumped. If you just can't decide, we also offer gift certificates in any amount.
Happy holidays to all! We wish you a safe, peaceful, and bright 2013.
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