Canadian Gift Guide

Coming off of its third successful season, HBO’s ‘True Blood’ shows no sign of recruiting a fan-pire of diehards. Much like when any film or TV show borrows its origins from a book or series, the literary form also gets some love.

Charlaine Harris, the mass market author of the Sookie Stackhouse books, shows no signs of stopping stories from the vampire-infested south. But if a pal of yours is thirsty for more True Blood in the off season, consider scoring the eight-book Sookie  Stackhouse boxset available from Chapters for $48.

The series is great for two reasons. One, have no fear – although certain plot threads, emotions, and characters may be borrowed from or inspired by the books, typically speaking the creators will veer away sharply from the major plotlines in the books. It’s almost like getting to experience an alternate reality of the series, or just getting to spend more time with your favourite characters.

Two, as a mass market author, Charlaine Harris’ books have a pretty widespread appeal. Ladies and gents, young and old, avid page turner or slow-moving reader, will appreciate the simplicity of Harris’ writing combined with intrigue and thrill.

If you’ve got a sibling, niece, or friend that’s into a slightly younger skewed TV-series-from-a-book, Chapters also offers a box set of the complete series of ‘Gossip Girl’ – which if you’ve never read it, is a pretty radical departure from the show in some ways. The original eleven books plus the prequel ‘It Had To Be You’ are housed in a glossy box featuring special covers that celebrate key moments from the show, for a pricier $92. Be sure to pick up the follow-up sequel as a future birthday gift down the road!

Alternatively there’s also newbie show ‘Pretty Little Liars’, with the original YA series written by Sara Shepard. With eight books and counting, this series actually quite closely follows what happens in the books. For now. Filled with mystery, murder, and teenage mayhem, the PLL series is a must-read for fans of the show, or those who want to get caught up before they see the action brought to life. The books retail for $10 a pop, or get the first four in a box set for $26.

Happy winter reading!