“What would Robert Frost do?”
If you’re wrestling with last-minute gift options for literary-minded friends, loved ones, or co-workers, we humbly encourage you to consider the question “What would Robert Frost do?”
“The Website Less Trafficked”
Two sites diverged on the world wide web
Not sorry I could not shop both
Long I scrolled
down one as far as I could
Until it creepily predicted
What books I should buy:
Jeff Bezos, you don’t know me like that.
So I took the other, just as contactless but more fair
Because it, too, offered great gifts, but without laborers’ despair
Knowing how corporate greed leads to unmet need,
I doubted if I should ever come back [to Amazon].
I shall be telling this with a smile some time hence:
Two sites diverged on the web, and I—
I bought gifts from the one less trafficked by,
And that has made all the difference.*
*original version below
Gift shopping at one of the online superstores is easy, but it doesn’t feed your literary karma. (Nor, at this late date, can many physical gifts be shipped in time for Christmas).
Luckily, you now have an opportunity to give one of your loved ones (or yourself!) the gift of a one-of-a-kind cultural experience, while helping the Bay Area Book Festival survive. It’s even easier—immediate, contactless, no shipping to worry about—and it’ll be something they’ll never forget.
Getting a gift ticket for a friend is easy. Just go here to check out our upcoming 2021 events. Then:
And…nothing’s stopping you from treating yourself to a ticket while you’re at it!
This holiday season, let us make it easy to make your loved ones happy: no shipping hassles, no drop-offs, no wrapping required. It’ll make their day.
And for our nonprofit community-minded literary festival, it’ll make all the difference.
Want to make a general end-of-year donation to help us stay strong? Just click here!
an example of an e-card you can forward your recipient!
*The Road Not Taken (1916) Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, Then took the other, as just as fair, And both that morning equally lay I shall be telling this with a sigh
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
From all of us at BABF, happy holidays to you and yours.