20 Books You Love to Give as Gifts

Rebecca Joines Schinsky

Chief of Staff

Rebecca Joines Schinsky is the executive director of product and ecommerce at Riot New Media Group. She co-hosts All the Books! and the Book Riot Podcast. Follow her on Twitter: @rebeccaschinsky.

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In honor of the most wonderful time of the year, we used our latest reader poll to ask about your favorite books to give as gifts. 315 Riot readers answered the call, sharing 534 unique titles. Here are the top 20 selections. (View the full data set.)

This is an interesting mix of classics, modern classics, contemporary hits, and children’s books. To me, the sleeper/surprise is Ready Player One. What do you think? Did your favorites make it?

  1. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (20 votes)
  2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (19 votes)
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (11)
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (9)
  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (8)
  • The Little Prince by Antoine de Sainte Exupery (8)
  • Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss (8)
  • Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed (8)
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (7)
  • The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (7)
  • Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (6)
  • The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (6)
  • The Giving Tree Shel Silverstein (6)
  • The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (6)
  • Life of Pi by Yann Martel (6)
  • The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (6)
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (6)
  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (6)
  • The Secret History by Donna Tartt (6)
  • The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (6)

    We thought it’d be fun to compare these results with the books that made the list of Riot readers’ favorite novels. Here’s how they connect (and thanks to fellow Rioter Minh for the diagram!):

    Favorite Gifts Venn

    Check out other Riot polls:

    The 25 Most-Hated Books (by Book Riot Readers)

    19 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read FOREVER

    20 Books You Pretend to Have Read

    Top 10 Books You’re Embarrassed to Admit You’ve Read

    20 Most-Loved Literary Characters

    Are These the 13 Most Underrated Books?

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