Austin Kleon

Gift ideas for dads & grads

It’s what folks in the book industry call “Dads & Grads” season. Here are two ideas:

1. Give them one of my books with a few crisp bills as a bookmark. (When in doubt about which book of mine to give, I suggest the deluxe hardcover anniversary edition of Steal Like an Artist.)

2. Gift them a paid subscription to my newsletter. (Sometimes it can feel weird giving digital presents, so I made an analog zine you can download, print out, fold, and customize that will explain everything. There’s even a video to show you how to make it.)

3. Buy something off my gear list, last year’s gift guide, or my yearly list of favorite books.

May 2025 mixtape

Listen to this mixtape on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube

Here is a mopey, gloomy, gothy, synthy mixtape for a heating earth. A cousin to Dancing in the Ruins.

I made it from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents at the record store. I taped over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I taped over the music and then I taped over the artwork.

I wish Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without A Face” didn’t have to have the bad macho guitar breakdown 3/4 through, but that’s how it goes.

You can listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.

Filed under: mixtapes

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