A book to share
Readers and writers explain which books they wish more people had read and why they want to share them with others this Christmas season
Your book-sharing stories: from a grandma’s precious gift to an online date gone wrong
Here are the titles our readers love to share at any opportunity – plus their best anecdotes around the act of giving and receiving books
Wise Children by Angela Carter – vibrant, bawdy, life-affirming
This fictionalised showbiz memoir contains all the juicy Shakespearean tropes of ambition, greed and revenge, expressed with a breathtaking lyricism
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro – a subtle masterpiece of quiet desperation
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker-winning novel is a story of unspoken love for anyone who’s ever held their true feelings back
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers – a weighty novel that still thrills
This is a mystery that encompasses large questions of life and love – and your verdict on the case will swing my judgment of you
Hiroshima by John Hersey – survivors' stories carry weight of history
The New Yorker’s 1946 special report on the aftermath of the first atomic bomb attack is clear-eyed and dispassionate, and all the more powerful for that, writes Craille Maguire Gillies
Forty Stories by Donald Barthelme – serious frivolity
To give somebody these genre-bending short stories is to bestow on them a new sense of fiction’s possibilities
The Old Wives’ Tale by Arnold Bennett – an extraordinary story of ordinary life
A portrait of a young woman, whose destiny remains unchanged by the historical convulsions around her, is a curiously uplifting read
Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff – piecing together a shattered mind
This story of a man who suffers from multiple personality disorder is a masterful blend of horror and romance
Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil by Timothy Mitchell
It’s not exactly a festive read, but this analysis of the politics behind climate change deserves to be widely shared, writes Susanna Rustin
Tenth of December by George Saunders – a book to make you love people again
The fond and funny human details of these stories will restore your affection for the significant others you may have tired of over Christmas
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans – bright mischief, quiet melancholy
The small, brave heroine of these sweet tales is full of infectious fun, but adult readers can sense the sadness behind the fun, writes Aida Edemariam
Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin – a gothic matryoshka
The chilling nest of stories within stories within stories in this novel is as enduringly chilling as its shadowy central personality
The Gift by Lewis Hyde – the book that keeps on giving
In the season of rampant materialism, this classic exploration of the value of giving over receiving has lost none of its power, writes Anita Sethi
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson – a house of ordinary horror
One of the greats of the ghostly short story ended her career with a haunting, unsettling novel without a spectre in sight, writes David Barnett
Which books do you love to give to others? Share your photos, stories and memories
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones – fantastical fun, fantastically human
Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald – all together now
Every little thing is a gem in Ian MacDonald’s mini-essay collection about the songs of the Fab Four, writes Chris Power
The Siege Of Krishnapur by JG Farrell – imperial folly comes fatally undone
Intolerable heat, appalling insects, and fraying colonial illusions come together in a surprisingly hilarious novel I want everyone to read, writes Sam Jordison
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman - fun, with footnotes
A 25-year-old collaboration between two of fiction’s stars produced an end-times fantasia that cries out to be shared with a new generation, writes Justine Jordan
The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde – fairytales for all ages
Kicking off a season of blogs about the books we most want to press on others, this is a book that will dazzle children and intrigue adults, writes Claire Armitstead
