1. Come On All You Ghosts by Matthew Zapruder I work with Matthew, and [...]]]> Yes! It’s that time of year. Time for the Writerland 2011 Gifts for Writers Buying Guide! In addition to the usual case of wine, Moleskine notebook, nice pen, and day-at-the-spa gifts that all writers love, here are 17 other great ideas:

1. Come On All You Ghosts by Matthew Zapruder
I work with Matthew, and he is one damn talented poet whose book was chosen as one of the New York Times 100 notable books of 2011. Matthew’s poetry rocks. And he’s a ridiculously nice guy. And every writer needs more poetry in his/her life. It’s inspirational, it’s thought-provoking, it takes us out of the daily grind of fiction and memoir writing (not to mention day jobs and housework.) Buy this book!

2. A Grotto class
The Grotto doesn’t offer gift certificates YET, but you can buy someone a Grotto class. This winter we will be offering a book proposal writing workshop with a real live agent as well as a performance workshop in addition to the usual novel, memoir, and nonfiction workshops, the social media class that I teach, blogging for journalists, and many more. (I want to take the performance workshop, in case you want to buy me a gift.)

3. A subscription to Poets & Writers, Writer’s Digest, or a literary journal like Zyzzyva or Tin House.
Poets & Writers and Writer’s Digest are both great publications full of author interviews, advice for budding writers, MFA program listings, writing contests, etc. Zyzzyva and Tin House are fabulous literary journals and a great way to support your favorite writers as well as give them gifts!

4. Tin House Writer’s Series
For $49.95 you can get the complete Tin House Writer’s Series, including Plotto, The Writer’s Notbook, The Story About The Story, and The World Within. It’s an MFA in a box! (Well, almost.)

5. Rumpus mugs
If your writer doesn’t have a “Writer Like a Motherfucker” mug, he needs one! Or if your writer is too prude for a motherfucker mug, you can buy him one of these other awesome Rumpus mugs.

6. Little Thinker Literary Plush Dolls
Ever wanted to sit down for tea with Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Shakespeare all at once? Now you can with these literary plush dolls and finger puppets. UPDATE: Also check out these fabulous handmade literary dolls on Etsy.

7. Book Bags and Kindle and iPad cases
These are no ordinary book bags. These are hand bags made from recycled hardcover books, and they are gorgeous (I want one!). You can even custom order the book cover of your choice. Also available: iPad and Kindle cases!

8. Book Journals
Along the same line, book journals made from recycled hardcover books. Love these, too!

9. Boxed Set of Books
If you’re rich enough to buy your writer a $2000 gift, you may be interested in this boxed set of books at Anthopologie.

10. Angry Writer T-Shirts
I listed these T-shirts last year, but they’re still awesome. I like “Beware the Plot Bunny” – reminds me of Monte Python’s Holy Grail. “It’s just a harmless little bunny isn’t it?”

11. Rory’s Story Cubes
Now available as an iPhone app! This game looks super fun. I want to play it.

12. Literati
This game looks super difficult. I’m intimidated to play it.

13. A subscription to the New Yorker
If you have a love/hate relationship with your writer, (s)he will soon love/hate you, too. (S)he will love you for the fantabulous stories and articles in the New Yorker, and (s)he will hate you for the anxiety the weekly delivery causes as issues stack up unread while (s)he tries to finish his/her novel/memoir/short story collection. It’s a win/lose situation.

14. An Amazon or Apple iTunes gift card
If your writer reads e-books on a Kindle or an iPad, this is one of the best gifts you can give her.

15. Kindle, Kindle Touch, or Kindle Fire
At $79, everyone should own a Kindle! Even if you already have an iPad! That way you can read your Kindle e-books both at night and in bright sunlight.

16. Scrivener 2.2
If your writer has Scrivener already, upgrade her to Scrivener 2.2! Scrivener is an indispensable software application for writers working on book-length projects.

17. Other awesome books
Steve Jobs, IQ84, and 11/22/63 are my top pics for this holiday season. Running a close second: The Marriage Plot for Jeffrey Eugenides. All books that you should buy me the writer in your life this holiday season.

18. Writes of Passage This last one comes to us courtesy of Karen Elliott, who commented below. Huge board game fan that I am, I had to include it.

What about you? What are your favorite gift ideas for writers? What books do you want someone to buy you?

It’s beautiful. The interface is gorgeous. Everything about it is slick and delicious. I downloaded a ton of classics and even started reading The Count of Monte Cristo, which was great. A lot of books I’m [...]]]> Bought the 3G iPad on Friday! I haven’t used it that much yet, but here are my initial reactions:

It’s beautiful. The interface is gorgeous. Everything about it is slick and delicious. I downloaded a ton of classics and even started reading The Count of Monte Cristo, which was great. A lot of books I’m interested in, like the Chicago Manual of Style, aren’t in e-book format yet. The nice thing is that if you can’t find a book in the iBooks store you can check the Kindle store through the Kindle for iPad app. The differences between the way they’re viewed: Kindle doesn’t have the “look” of a book with the pages on the sides, and the pages don’t “turn” like a real book, they just slide over, but Kindle has sepia tone, which is kind of cool, and more options for font size. Overall, they look pretty similar. One thing that’s annoying is that when you download a free Kindle book, it treats it like a real book purchase and sends you a receipt by e-mail. It’s a longer, more involved process than downloading books from the iBooks store, which takes about 2 seconds.

There aren’t a lot of iPad apps out there yet. You can use all the iPhone apps, but I don’t wan an app that is pixelated when I double the size to fit the iPad. I want apps designed FOR the iPad. So choices are limited at this point (I tried to download a stopwatch and a French dictionary and couldn’t find ones I liked.)

The app I’ve been using most so far: New York Times. It’s so slick. You get just eight stories per category (news, tech, biz, lifestyle, opinion), so some people may hate that, but for someone like me who doesn’t have time to read the paper anyway, it’s perfect. I check it in bed before I go to sleep and in the morning when I wake up, and while I’m feeding the baby.

My 2-year-old son has also gotten a lot of use out of the iPad. Toddler games are way better on the iPad than on the iPhone, as I imagine all games are.

I use Google Calendar instead of iCalendar, and I haven’t found a Google calendar app I’m happy with, but all in good time. I’m sure within the next three months there will be a gazillion more iPad-optimized apps in the store.

Maps works great, and is much easier to use in the larger format.

I haven’t downloaded Pages (word processing) yet, but will do that today.

I think the biggest question about the iPad is where does it fit into my life? It’s not small enough to carry in my pocket or purse like an iPhone (it’s definitely not an iPhone replacement for that reason), and I can’t picture myself writing my book on it, although I did get the keyboard and once the case that props the iPad up is available, there’s no reason why I couldn’t write on it (except that I use Scrivener, and I’m sure it will be ages before Scrivener has an iPad app since they don’t even have a PC app yet). I guess the best way to view it is as a super-e-reader. You take it anywhere you’d take a book-and then you have your e-mail, calendar, and a gazillion other apps, too. But when I’m hopping in the car with no intentions to read a book, I’m not sure whether to bring it with me. For an airplane ride, or a hospital stay, it would be perfect. But do I need it every day?

What do you think? Do you have an iPad? Do you plan to get one? What do you/would you use it for?