During my cash-crunched university years, ‘gifting’ was an alien concept for all practical purposes. It was not until my last year that I realized how big a difference giving gifts makes.
The difficulty in the early days was to find a suitable gifts. I did a bit of experimentation – clothes, hobby equipment (eg: paint brushes, pencils for an artist friend) but eventually, I have settled down on books as a rule. The biggest motivation here is that this is a gift that has a shot at ‘going the distance’ and hopefully making a meaningful difference in their lives. When I write my customary 1st page note wishing friends a ‘Happy Birthday’, I hope they will rediscover the book 30 years later and go down memory lane..
It’s a dreamers wish.. but hey, that’s why we call it a ‘wish’.
This doesn’t work as well for my ‘auditary’ friends to whom I gift audio books but then again, I hope that they will remember the books many years later as it would, hopefully, have changed their life in some ways.
And, on this note, I am reminded of the quote from Robin Sharma (paraphrased)
‘Keep reading for there will come a book that will change your life.. and you don’t know which one that is’
A Learning a Day 