I love reading and will generally read anything (although some books take me longer than others to get through – I know you know what I mean!). I also have lots of family and friends who also enjoy reading (although some of my family and friends are more time restrained than me, something to do with having children?!) and I have been thinking about giving a book subscription as a gift for quite some time now.

Admittedly it did start around this time last year when myself and my lovely friend Lara Page decided we wanted to turn our love of subscription gifts into a business. Unfortunately we still haven’t figured out exactly what we want to gift (and that could be a whole other blog in itself) but we did trial lots of different subscription gifts in the meantime (because who doesn’t love a gift for themselves?!).

Two of the subscription gifts that I was interested in (due to aforementioned love of reading) were The Willoughby Book Club and Prudence and the Crow.

Firstly, the Willoughby Book Club

I’ve been aware of The Willoughby Book Club for a while (prior to last year’s research) and follow them on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest ( I don’t know why I don’t follow them on Facebook but I might be about to start). What drew me in was their branding, I love the typewriter font and rusticness of the site, and the simple fact that you can get books sent out as part of a book subscription. And that these books can be personalised to whoever you are gifting the book subscription to.

And I have been incredibly tempted to buy this for someone (not sure who yet, probably my Big Brother) but the price slightly puts me off. Not that this is an expensive book subscription for 3 months more than 3 months is the smallest amount of time that you can gift the book subscription.

Secondly, Prudence and the Crow

I think this is why when I stumbled across Prudence and the Crow (and I did stumble across them in a hunt for gift subscriptions) that I thought yes. As with Willoughby Book Club I follow these guys on Instagram and Twitter (and will be about to follow them on Pinterest and Facebook as well). They are all about the vintage book instead of the new, vintage, fiction and non-fiction like Willoughby Book Club. And they have a range of different book subscription offers including a one-off gift at just £15.

That, I find incredibly reasonable as a one-off gift. Plus it means I can buy a few extra little things to go with this present when I am giving it to someone. Plus (as I did test it out myself last year) the little extras such as a tea bag, some sweets, and a book jacket make it into a fantastically thought through and pleasing whole.

It was that much of a pleasing whole that when I put together a gift for one of my best friends Laura, that started from a magical bottle of sparkling wine (more about that in another post), I felt that a book subscription from Prudence and the Crow would add that final special something along the magical/mystical theme.

What will the next page turn bring (ok that was a very bad attempt at book humour)?

I am definitely going to revisit both Prudence and the Crow and Willoughby Book Club for future gifts for people (and maybe even splurge on myself again as well). I do love a subscription gift and these two are fantastic book subscription gifts (I really like that they cover a variety of tastes and ages) and tick all the boxes I like in a gift: unusual, independent, bespoke, and will make whoever receives it happy. What more could you ask for?

Feel free to drop me a comment with any subscription gifts or book subscription gifts that I have missed. I do have quite a few on my list (such as the gift of bacon mentioned previously) but anymore are always gratefully received!