So it’s the eve of the Great American Gift Exchange Month, and the question I’m asking myself is: is it okay to give e-books as presents?
Stay with me here. It gets philosophical for a bit.
To start with, what makes something socially acceptable as a gift? Does it have to have required sacrifice, or, to put it another way, does it have to have cost time or money? Does it have to be personal to the recipient? That is, if you hand out little cellophane bags of cookies to co-workers or neighbors, that’s a goodie bag, but some cookies you make for some special, that’s a present?
Does it have to be useful? Because we all want small appliances and kitchen utensils for as presents. Or, failing useful, does it have to have artistic merit?
How about it being something someone wouldn’t buy for themselves. Hurray for ugly ties and tacky decorative objects.
Does it have to be tangible? My best wishes for the coming year are a greeting card sentiment, not a present.
Maybe it’s anything that the giver and the givee can agree is a present, because it relates to the bond they have. Prank gifts like a yard full of plastic flamingos or exploding cigars fall in that category. (I nearly wrote “guitars” in that last sentence – if you see them in stores next year, I patented the idea already!)
So how do gift cards stack up against these questions? Purists have argued that a gift card isn’t personal, didn’t require any sacrifice of time, and is barely tangible. In certain past years, I’ve been part of present exchanges which consisted of everybody handing around Amazon gift certificates, so in the end, everybody was buying themselves something on Amazon.
Which brings us to e-books. For a while, there was a complaint that you couldn’t go to Amazon (or other purveyors of fine imaginary objects) and buy an e-book as a present. That personal gesture of picking out a book for someone to read wasn’t available, which left us with … gift cards. Amazon at least now offers this minor nod to genuine gift-giving.
But I have a special case. You see, for the past several years, I have given presents of my own books to family and friends. They’re my primary audience, since I write as a hobby. When I give someone a physical book, it’s tangible, cost money, and entailed some sacrifice of time. There’s a minor personal touch involved, as some folks don’t get every one of the year’s books: I filter on whether a book is likely to be appreciated.
This year, though, I want to give out e-books. It seems most people I know have e-readers now, so it simply makes sense to me to give them a virtual book, not a physical object. It also saves me money, not the least in shipping costs (damned books are heavy!) Somehow, though, giving someone an e-book I wrote seems a lot like sending someone a website link. It cost no money, consists of nothing tangible, and is negligibly personal. If I flatter myself, I may claim some artistic merit, but let’s not be ridiculous. I’m not giving out personally signed Picasso miniatures here. It just doesn’t feel like it’s a present at all.
At least with a gift card, you can put it an envelope or a stocking. What am I supposed to do? Give everyone a small box with a slip of paper that says, “A gift is waiting for you in your email”?
Octochoron 