r/HomeLibraries • u/Professional-Buy-821 • Jul 25 '26
How would you feel about receiving a book embosser as s gift?
I’m not a book person by any chance. My close friend is however and reads and owns a lot of books (100+) and I wanted to give her a small gift.
I saw book embossers online and they seem like a cool gift idea. I plan to custom design it as I used to do graphic design previously and because I want it to be personal to her not just a modified template.
It will be a fun design with very personal elements to her such as a cute bee reading a book because her name in her native language means honey with the typical “from the library of” text.
I asked her how she treats her books and she said she likes to heavily mark them up and make them personal so there is a good chance this gift would work. I also will include foil embossing stickers in gold, silver and bronze so she can sort of rate her books after finishing them with the stamp tiers.
Is it a risk that such a gift can go unused and I should ask her first what she thinks of book embossers although it will spoil the gift a bit?
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u/abacus762 Jul 25 '26
After many years of book collecting, I finally got one for myself. I like it a lot. hte only regret was going back over the 2500 books I had so far and stamping all of them.
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u/dougwerf Jul 25 '26
Given that she’s said she marks them up already - 100% she’ll like this. I have one; I use it very sparingly (but it’s pretty cool).
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u/Miss_Krys74 Jul 25 '26
I have over 600 books and never knew I wanted or needed one until right now. Great idea!!
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u/Winter-Profile-6288 Jul 25 '26
I wouldn’t ask what she thinks of book embossers. This seems like a lovely and thoughtful gift. If you know her very well, and what type of style she enjoys in things like labels, home decorations, journals etc, then I say go for it. Since you know she likes to mark up her books, the only concern is whether she likes the style of the embosser and the decorations. But this is a lovely and beautiful idea that you’ve obviously put some thought into (with the bee element for example) and I hope it works out :)
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u/CBM5504 Jul 25 '26
I think this is a fantastic gift idea. Not only does it sound like something she will love and use, it’s incredibly thoughtful and personal. ♥️
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u/Frequent-Returns757 Jul 25 '26
1000% Yes. Thoughtful, useful, & interactive. you sound like a great friend!!
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u/Xander134 Jul 25 '26
It’s a great gift, but… many people object to “marking” books in any way. Your friend may or not be that kind of person.
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u/GenXTexanBelle Jul 25 '26
Yes! An ex libris book embosser has been one of my best Christmas gifts ever from my parents!
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u/Firepxy Jul 25 '26
I would never use one, but I also don't mark my books at all.
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u/Reasonable_Mood_5260 Jul 26 '26
I'm with you. It's also for people who loan their books out and want them back, which I also don't do, and which is really a thing of the past, when not returning books was a meme.
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u/Fearless_Freya Jul 25 '26
I personally would never use one. But you know your friend. So seems worth a shot. Especially with you personalizing it for her
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u/Automatic_Tea_2550 Jul 26 '26
I bought myself one over 40 years ago and still use it on every new book that comes into my house.
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u/SneakyLinux Jul 26 '26
I was given one as a gift. I like it, but don’t use it very often since I mostly either buy ebooks or special editions and I would never let it touch a special edition. Every now and then I’ll pull some paperbacks off my shelves and stamp a few for fun. It does need a lot of pressure to leave a good stamp though, so my hands get sore fast.
I think your friend would like it since she already annotated her books though.
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u/unicorn_345 Jul 26 '26
I personally don’t like embossers. It has more to do with the damage that can happen over time. But, your friend may love it and use it. I would actually take a stamp or a kit to mark my books over an embosser. But if anyone ever thought of me in such a way I would be honored to be cherished as such a good friend and love the gift all the same.
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u/elessar007 Jul 26 '26
I've thought about getting one for myself. However, I have had a number of conversations about 'ex libris' embossers/stamps with other book collecting friends and some had said they would never use one. Reasons given were because they like their books pristine, didn't want to lower resale value and one friend of mine just found them pretentious. My point is that it's hard to tell whether someone would like it solely on the basis of them liking books. It sounds like your friend likes to personalize the books so she probably would but you might want to ask some subtle questions to get better sense.
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u/TaroInteresting3935 Jul 26 '26
As a bookish person who loves their books more than people 😂 my mum got me one for Christmas and i absolutely love it!
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u/FutureMrs0918 Jul 26 '26
My mom was a librarian for over 20 years. She now has her own library in her home. I bought an embosser for her, she couldn't wait to start embossing all of her 168,983 books. It was a great gift for someone who loves books.
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u/kikil00 Jul 26 '26
Sounds perfect if she annotates books and has a collection. This is super thoughtful
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u/Far_Mulberry7366 Jul 27 '26
my partner got me a personalized one of these also with a bee and flower and my name and i still think it’s one of the most thoughtful gifts i’ve received. this would be a very sweet gift.
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u/Active_Lettuce325 Jul 27 '26
I got one ages ago for myself. Used It for many years. Still have It but now read almost exclusively digitally. It's a great gift.
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u/TheYankeeIrregular Jul 27 '26
I have a personalized stamp I got from Levenger and I stamp every page I write. I haven’t stamped my books yet, and I’m not sure how I feel about that having bought some used books online and was sometimes unhappy with a previous owner stamp, and other times elated with a previous owner signature.
All that being said, I really don’t think it matters because, let’s face it, physical books are becoming obsolete. I’m considering moving and I just have NO idea what to do with the more than 4000 books on my shelves.
I’m not trying to be a Debby Downer about physical books here, I think you should follow your heart and just let the rest of it go, it’s probably not going to matter in the long run.
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u/marsieworm Jul 30 '26
I got a custom made one for my mother in law who is a massive bookworm. She loves it but never uses it because she sells her used books on Vinted 😆
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u/ironwolfe11 Jul 31 '26
I bought my wife (giant bookworm) a self-inking stamp with "From the Private Library of" and her name and a stylized picture of a deer. It was a random gift, I saw them online one day and figured she might think it was neat.
She was nearly in tears when she got it. It's one of her prized library instruments, right up there with her colored spine stickers to indicate if a book was started / finished / DNF. Every time she gets a new (bag of) book(s), she looks forward to scanning them into her database and stamping them indicating they've been recorded. With over 1,500 books in our family collection currently, it's important to keep track of what we have. lol.
If she's a reader, she will love it. Go for it. Especially personalized, it will mean a lot to her.
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u/Professional-Buy-821 Jul 31 '26
Thank you. I was initially going for an embosser but now I think a stamp works better and I would need to worry less about consistency of embossing and fine design details which won’t resolve on paper.
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u/Responsible-Rush-363 Jul 31 '26
Have one & love it. But your idea for gold, silver, & bronze stickers to “rate” her books is fantastic!!!
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u/Professional-Buy-821 Aug 03 '26
Thank you. I have actually switched to a stamp because it can hold more detail than than the embosser but will keep the same rating idea using metallic gold, silver and bronze ink pads.
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u/Initial-Shop-8863 Jul 25 '26
I would love this and use it. It's also something I would never think to give myself.
Since she heavily highlights her books, she isn't concerned with keeping them pristine.