Book Gift Basket Ideas and Swap

Grab your book besties and host a book gift basket swap for your next girls night, book club, or even favorite things party! It’s a fun way to get introduced to a new book and get some goodies to go along with it!

I am always looking for different book club activities to try out that are book themed but not necessarily just talking about books.

We’ve done everything from creating TBR book bingo cards together to having a book exchange (with plot twist cards!), and even all sorts of book club crafts.

Last year I did a book basket swap with a bunch of friends that weren’t in my book club, so I thought it’d be fun to do one with the people I talk about books with the most!

The women totally delivered and put together some of the best book gift baskets I’ve ever seen! I’ve shared all of our book basket ideas in this post to give you inspiration!

If you want to do your own book gift basket swap, it’s pretty simple. Just tell everyone to put together a basket with a book and items inspired by that book.

Also give everyone a budget of some sort so you don’t have people bringing luxury baskets and people bringing in budget baskets. We did a $25 budget PLUS the book, encouraging people to use books that they had already read or could get at a thrift store for cheap.

When people show up for the swap, have everyone put their book gift baskets out on a table or counter so everyone can see them.

Then it’s time for one of the most important parts of the swap – have everyone go through one at a time and explain their book and their basket. The goal is for them to explain why they love the book, why they chose the items in the basket, and sell people on their basket!

Then it’s time for the swap. You can do this in so many different ways. You can use any of my gift exchange games if you want to do something more traditional.

Or you can do what we did. We played this higher or lower bookish game that has all sorts of book themed trivia that no one will actually know, but that’s why it’s so fun. Everyone just has to guess whether the statements are higher or lower than the facts, so it’s really anyone’s game!

The first person who got 10 trivia questions correct chose their book basket first. The second chose second and so on. The only caveat is that you have to make sure that the person who finishes last doesn’t get their own so if there are only two people left, those two get the two that are left (if it includes one of theirs).

This was such a fun way to do the book basket swap. Everyone went home with a book and bookish gifts they loved, and we had fun doing it!

If you want some ideas of what to put into a book gift basket, here are the ones we did for this year’s book retreat and the one’s we did for our fall party a few years ago!

Firefighter Themed Book Gift Basket

This book gift basket was inspired by the Sky Ridge Hotshots series, a romance series all about Firefighters. It included all sorts of hot, fiery, and flaming items.

Some of my favorites were the campfire color changing packets, Beat the Heat card game (very similar to one of my favorite family card games), the kitchen torch, Fire Peach lipstick, and 15 Minutes of Flame OPI nail polish. Oh and of course a little mini first aid kit!

Football Themed Book Basket

We live in Kansas City so someone had to make a book gift basket inspired by the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce romance! The Rule Book is nothing like their story but it’s still a football book, and this football themed basket was a fun way to represent it!

My favorites from this basket were the fall is for football spoons, football cups, and Vegas dice game (one of my favorite group board games).

Witch Themed Book Baskets

We actually had two totally different witch themed book gift baskets – one for The Very Irregular Society of Witches and one for The Witch Collector.

There were some fun surprises in both of the gift baskets, but my favorite things in them were this book lamp (amazing!), a star bath bomb, and a fun flower pressing kit.

Cozy Coloring Book gift Basket

I told everyone they could bring any sort of book basket they wanted, so one of my friends made a coloring book gift basket. It was perfect and one of the first ones to go because it just looked so cozy!

My favorite things in it were the cozy coloring book, homemade zucchini bread, a pumpkin shaped dish, and the most comfy socks.

Race Car Themed Book Gift Basket

I’ve never read Throttled but my friend’s race car themed book basket totally sold me on the book because of all of the fun things inside!

My favorites were the Little Trees air freshener, the black and white checkered blanket, and the French macarons (from a scene in the book apparently).

Taylor Swift Themed basket

I already mentioned that we live in Kansas City, but we also have a bunch of full blown Swifties in our book club so you know someone did a Taylor Swift basket! Instead of a book, they did it themed on a Taylor Swift magazine and the colors from Life of a Showgirl.

I have a ton of Taylor Swift party food ideas that could easily fit into this basket but some of my favorites in the actual basket were the Glowgetter face mask, orange confetti topper nail polish, and the Sparkling Icebreaker mints!

Butcher and Blackbird Book Gift Basket

My friend is obsessed with this book. I couldn’t really get into, but I know a lot of people love it. And the book was perfect for our Halloween themed book basket swap!

My favorite things in her basket were the intense dark Ghirardelli chocolates (because the book is intense!), the skull candle, and Halloween shower steamers.

Yours Truly Bookish Gift Basket

This book has a cult following (it’s been on my books to read list forever). So many people love it and my friend who brought this basket did an amazing job with it!

I’m not sure if my favorite part of it was the basket itself (a cute yellow lunch bag/picnic basket), the dog bandages, or the Taco Bell gift card, but it really was perfect!

Fall Themed Book Basket

This book is a fall themed book, like everything is about as fall as you can get! So the book basket had a cozy scarf, a fall day candle, a fall colored water bottle, and pumpkin spice popcorn!

Part of Your World Themed Book Basket

We had two Abby Jimenez book baskets at our latest book swap, and I’m honestly not sure which one I loved more. They were both kind of like her books – sweet, cute, and great for anyone!

My favorite parts of this basket were the lamb stuffed animal, bath salts with a bath scrubber (my favorite), and the flying squirrel dog toy! This one was a favorite among everyone at the swap!

Romantasy Themed Book Gift Basket

This Anathema themed book basket was all Romantasy coded with dark colors, spooky theming, and lots of dark chocolate. I haven’t personally read the book, but I know my friend who made it was really excited about all of the inside hints inside the book!

It’d be really fun to do any of the other popular Romantasy books too. You could use any of our bookish gifts to do an ACOTAR or Throne of Glass book basket. Or any of the swag from our book retreat last year to do Fourth Wing. There are so many possibilities!

If you need some more book themed ideas to do with your book club, try these next!

• Reading activities – tons of different ways to bring books to life!
• Harry Potter games – every type of Harry Potter themed activity you can think of!
• Dr. Seuss activities – while maybe not great for book club, these are still fun!
• Hunger Games party ideas – perfect for the upcoming movie releases!