Christmas gift ideas for the bookworm in your life
Although the Christmas holidays are an exciting prospect, after a day or two stuck inside, the cabin fever can set in just in a little, which is why it’s nice – if you have a particular hobby or interest – to get a few gifts to spur your passion and keep you busy.
If you’re buying for a book fan, a good selection of literature, or accessories to help them read in comfort, could set them up for a great festive season.
We’ve drawn on our extensive book reviews to pick out a few reads we think bookworms will seriously enjoy, including a few for those younger literary fans, too.
Aside from the tomes, we’ve also found practical gifts that any book lover will be glad to receive this Christmas.
Read on for our top picks, you can thank us later.
You can trust our independent round-ups. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
2020 award-winning books
Booker Prize winner Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (£8.36, Bookshop) is set in Eighties Glasgow and depicts the tale of a mother-son relationship.
It offers depiction of a working-class family not seen too often in literature. Perhaps not an easy read, but definitely a memorable one.
Another award-winning book that landed a spot in our best reads for 2020 review is Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. Earning the title of the Best Book of the Year at the British Book Awards, it tells the story of a young black woman, Queenie, who’s just broken up with her long-term boyfriend. Our reviewer described it as “a fresh, funny and at times painful read”.
Festive books
Reckon your recipient would rather go for something a little more festive? In that case, you might want to check out some of the titles in our best Christmas books list.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas (£6.55, Amazon) by Dr Seuss is a timeless classic for little and big kids alike. Dr Seuss ingeniously weaves deep life lessons into his tale of the Grinch, the meanest creature who hates Christmas, to demonstrate that the festive season is a spiritual experience, not a material one.
Climate books
The climate emergency may not quite scream Christmas, but if you are buying for someone who’s concerned about the plight of the earth, they’re bound to appreciate a book from our rundown of best climate emergency books.
The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future by David Wallace-Wells (£10.22, Bookshop) won our best buy award in this category, with our reviewer saying it “does offer hope that we already have all the tools we need to avoid the worst effects” – so it’s something of a positive read.
Books about failure
Reasons to Stay Alive (£7.78, Amazon) by Matt Haig is a worthy addition to any reader’s library, especially with everything we’ve faced in 2020, and was included in our books about failure guide.
In it, Haig explores mental health in an honest and personal way. Our reviewer said: “Though we have become better in discussing mental health, it can still feel like a stigma is attached to a mental health diagnosis – and therefore, you may feel like a failure for not ostensibly being “strong” enough, or “manly” enough. Sometimes, people may not seek help for this very reason – and this book is a powerful redirection of this disgusting standard.”
Coffee table books
For something less wordy, look to these photo-led coffee table books that we’ve already bought as Christmas gifts.
National Geographic’s 225 of the World's Most Amazing Places, (£22.50, Amazon) features some of the most incredible scenescapes we’ve ever set eyes on, like Ulva Island, an uninhabited nature reserve in New Zealand, and Ngorongoro Crater in East Africa.
Whether or not it’ll make you feel better about being unable to travel, we’re not sure, but it’s a great one to flick through once Christmas lunch is done and get you dreaming about future trips.
Perhaps you have a fashionista to buy for, in which case, one of the most striking coffee table books we can recommend is Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (£36.63, Blackwells) which has a holographic cover, flipping between a skull (a much-used motif by McQueen) and the face of the designer himself.
It includes lots of information and quotes from McQueen, but, more importantly, some incredible photography reminding us of the unique creative talent of the haute couture legend from east London.
Books for kids
If you’re a poetry lover and want to encourage your kids in the same vein, or simply read it with them, we’ve got some great ideas in our best kids poetry books guide.
Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright! (£14.79, Amazon) has been written in collaboration with the National Trust and features “The Peacock’s Eye” by Gerard Manley Hopkins and “The Arctic Fox” by Ted Hughes and newer poems too, like Carol Ann Duffy’s “The Wasp” and “Crab Dance” by Grace Nichols.
Our reviewer gave it our best buy award and couldn’t praise it highly enough, calling it “one of the most stunning children’s books of the year”.
Reading accessories
Maybe the bibliophile you’re buying for purchases every book they really want to read as soon as it comes out, in which case, a reading accessory could be an option instead.
This stylish tripod lamp (£129, The Lighting Company) has a matte and grey finish and “is designed to put an armchair in a hallway or the corner of a sitting room in the spotlight” according to our tester, who featured it in our review of the best floor lamps of 2020.
Should you have a biggish budget for your literary lover, and they’re not necessarily wedded to the traditional paper book, a Kindle Oasis (£229, Amazon) could make the perfect gift.
It won the best buy award in our review of the best eReaders of 2020, with our tester describing it as “spectacular”. It’s waterproof (reading in the bath = tick) and the lighting adjusts to the ambient light of the room you’re in.
“Unlike the other Kindle readers, this one has physical page turn buttons to go forward or back a page. Cleverly, these buttons work whichever way up you hold the Kindle, which reverses what’s onscreen as you turn the device upside down,” our tester added.
You can access millions of books and newspapers, and it’s connected to Amazon’s audiobook service Audible too, so if you’d rather listen than read, that’s an option as well. We’re very tempted.
For more literary inspiration, read our round-up of the best books to help you live more sustainably
