It’s that time of year again! Every year, people ask me what Shakespeare gifts to get the Shakespeare Geek in their lives. My kids, especially, since, after 20 years of doing this, they’re running out of stuff to get 😁😁😁 Rather than just google “Shakespeare gifts” like you could do yourselves, I thought this year I’d focus only on gifts that I personally own and can recommend!
This post unsurprisingly contains Amazon affiliate links, meaning that the site may receive revenue if you end up clicking and purchasing something (at no additional cost to you).
Shakespeare Books
My first pick, given the timing, is Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. I reviewed it here last month, though I think it’s grown on me the more I think about it. The book is clearly better than the movie. I went into it with a real “What do you mean Shakespeare’s barely a character?” attitude, but somewhere along the way I *got* it and realized that’s the whole point. A point that the movie doesn’t get.
The next two are probably better as audiobooks, but your mileage may vary. Both Sir Patrick Stewart and Dame Judi Dench, two gods of modern Shakespearean acting, released autobiographies this year – Stewart’s “Making It So“ and Dench’s “The Man Who Pays The Rent“. Both are loaded with Shakespeare stories, as you can rightly imagine Dame Judi’s more so, because Sir Patrick’s got a lot of Star Trek to talk about. If you’d like to read my reviews, they can be found here and here. I can’t say which I liked better. I think Stewart’s is a more compelling story, being a straight autobiography. Dench’s is organized as a series of interviews with a lifelong friend of hers. But her voice is music, I could listen to it for hours.
Of course, I have to also plug my book, My Own Personal Shakespeare: Macbeth. But I’m not just saying that! My daughter had her Shakespeare epiphany in college when studying Lady Macbeth. The calls and texts (in all capitals) began, digging deeply into her new feminist icon. She asked me if she could get an edition of Macbeth to call her own, something she could mark up with all her thoughts, and an idea was born. Together, we created “My Own Personal Shakespeare” specifically for the truly dedicated fans, those readers who want to make their thoughts stand right there next to Shakespeare’s. We hope someday to make more titles in the series. (What play should we do next, do you think?)
For something a little different, I’m also going to mention Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I’ve seen mixed reviews on this one but I loved it. It’s about two videogame designers, and while it’s not a Shakespeare retelling, there’s plenty of Shakespeare content. If a book about a lifelong love story between videogame developers already sounds like your cup of tea, the Shakespeare parts are just the icing on the cake.
Shakespeare Games and Puzzles
We love jigsaw puzzles in this house. One year for Christmas, my wife got me The World of Shakespeare jigsaw puzzle, without realizing that I’d already bought it for myself! 🙂 Review here. It’s got scenes from the plays distributed throughout the scene, so instead of the classic, “I’ve got a corner”, “Here’s an edge” and “I’m collecting blue sky over here” you’ll honestly be saying stuff like, “This looks like Hamlet! Anybody seen a skull?”
For a different kind of puzzle without so much Shakespeare content but a whole different skill set consider a “book nook!” This 3d puzzle in the form of a cozy library (complete with a reading light) is intended to sit alongside all the Shakespeare books on your shelf. Of course there’s a Shakespeare Book Nook but really it’s just named Shakespeare. Though there are Shakespeare books on the tiny shelves! It’s really quite soothing to put together, though you will eventually need tweezers, especially when getting the stickers in place.
Shakespeare Apparel
Of course no post about buying gifts for Shakespeare Geeks would be complete without a link to the Shakespeare Geek Shop! I’ve been creating original designs for 10+ years now and there’s easily over 100 of them, available on t-shirts, hoodies, phone cases and pillows. Nothing bugs me more than seeing one of those “I would challenge you to a battle of wits…” t-shirts in the Shakespeare collection, That’s not Shakespeare!
Anyway, here’s just a sampling of our best sellers! Browse The Complete Collection Now!
I’m also a big fan of socks as Shakespeare gifts, though I don’t have any to offer in the shop (but the minute Amazon offers them, I will!) I actually have these, though there are many options available. Although if we put aside the “you can get everything on Amazon” thinking, the London Sock Exchange has an entire set of high-end Shakespeare socks that I would love to get for Christmas. And by high end, I mean $20/pair – the Amazon ones are half that. The London version actually sells a kit for over $100 where you can get them all. Fingers crossed that my kids are reading this post!
Everybody Loves Shakespeare Gifts
I hope that gives you some ideas for Shakespeare gifts based on my personal experience. Anybody who loves Shakespeare loves getting Shakespeare gifts; that’s been true for me at least for twenty years. I can’t wait to see what’s waiting for me this year. Hopefully, with the help of this post, there’ll be plenty of other Shakespeare geeks out there equally blessed!