21 (Not So Common) Books That Are Perfect to Gift This New Year

The time has come again. A new year and a new beginning. A time that you can spend well with yourself and your friends and family. We all search for gifts that would be appropriate for our friends and family. So what better than books to snuggle up in a blanket on a cold winter day and read. This year gift something to your loved ones that would help them get ahead in life.

I really advocate reading a lot and hence I decided to gift some books to my loved ones. This idea made me think that I should probably put out a list of books to gift in the beginning of this year for you to benefit from. You can gift these to yourself or your loved ones.

21 Perfect Books As A Perfect Gift 

Although all those gifts cannot be replaced with books only, I would suggest you give your loved ones the opportunity to build a new good habit - the habit of reading.  I have curated here a list of books that can help you choose the right book to gift this New Year to your loved ones. 

To help you further I have categorized the best books to gift this year into categories to that it is further simplified for you to choose.

My first category is - books for teenagers. Getting your teenagers to read is one of the toughest jobs, but developing a habit of reading regularly is a habit that will take them miles ahead. So start with gifting them a few books in the beginning of this year.

1. 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teenagers

This book has been adapted from 7 habits of highly effective people. A wonderful book to start building better habits in life that would go a long way with your teenagers. It is also available in a workbook format which may be more engaging for teens .

2. Almost Adulting

Bringing to your teenagers a glimpse of the adult world that they are so eager to enter. It makes them realize the realities and helps them prepare for them.

3. Man's Search For Meaning Young Adult Adaptation

A wonderful book on life and positive psychology. This book is the adapted version for teens to eliminate technicalities of logotherapy and still in simple words make them understand the message that the book wants to project.

4. Who Moved My Cheese

Teenage is a time when most of us face life altering changes. This little book is one on the best that I have read on upcoming change and how to cope with it. It motivates you to be alert and identify change and at the same time be courageous and move along with it.

5. The Big Idea Series - Any Book That Interests Them.

The Big Idea series has a diverse range of subjects addressed in individual books starting from Art, History, Philosophy, Psychology, Movie, Astronomy , Business, Biology and much more. So whatever topic your kid is interested in you will probably find it in one of the books here

The next category is books related to personal finance. 

6. Rich Dad Poor Dad

This book has been on my recommendation list forever. I have personally suggested this book to more than 100 people and stubbornly insisted they read it. It will change your concept about money, assets, debt and liability. The concept of making money work for you is clearly expressed here. It is the best book to gift to anyone in their teens or at any stage of their adult life.

7. The Psychology of Money

This book is based on the concept that your behavior with money is what will determine your financial success. One of the things the author points out here is that the simplest way to become poor and financially miserable is to spend money on things that you buy only to show- off to the world that you are rich. Getting wealthy and staying wealthy are 2 different things and this book is what leads you to understand the psychology behind staying rich.

8. The Richest Man In Babylon

The best part of this book is that it explains a lot of concepts in the form of a story and hence makes it less boring than any other self-help book. It is good for people who like reading stories and avoid nonfiction self-help books

9. The 4-Hour Work-Week

Most of us are stuck in the 9 to 5 job circle and we cannot afford to break it . The reason may be our needs for the financial security that it provides or the social status that comes with us. This book is for someone who wants to get out of this 9 to 5 job routine and move towards freelance gigs and work from home or self-employment. It is a perfect motivation that explains you the real value of money.

The list of self-development books can go on and on. But here are a select few that I have loved and I believe they can turn your life around.

10. Contagious

This is the digital age and today each one of us needs to learn a little bit about digital marketing and digital presence no matter what career you choose. This becomes compulsory if you are in a profession where digital presence is a must like blogging, vlogging, publishing, advertising, and so on. Even self-employed professionals like doctors, teachers, etc. need word of mouth for advancing in their businesses. This book is all about how to build that word of mouth in a digital age when everything is online. I was blown by the book and would definitely suggest you to read it and give it to anyone who you think will find it useful. 

11. 5 AM Revolution 

This is for every person who complains they don't have enough time. Getting a kickstart to your day a little earlier than the world can take you miles ahead and this is what this book is all about. It explains well why you should get up when the world is sleeping and how you can utilize that time.

12. You Can Heal Your Life

This book is majorly about affirmations and the power they hold. This book talks about how every aspect of your life is affected because of your mindset and preconceived notions. It talks about belief systems and affirmations and how they can help you change almost everything in your life to take it into the desired direction.

13. Atomic Habits

This book talks about the power of creating sustainable habits. Most of us create unrealistic goals for ourselves . We want to do it all at once but that does not work maximum no.of times. Hence here the author motivates us to create habits that are manageable and then build on them. If you want to read one book a week this new year, and you have not been reading at all till now then the author here suggests that you should take a resolution to read just 5 pages each day. That is a more sustainable habit.

14. Minimalism -Be More With Less

This book is both on personal finance and self-development.  It lays down the basics of minimalism, i.e., a lifestyle choice of having only what is needed and eliminating the extras from your life. A journey that starts from decluttering and leads you to find more about yourself. Minimalism changed my life a lot and helped me gain insight on my actions and thought patterns. It led me to the important things in life by helping me eliminate the unnecessary things that cluttered my space and thoughts. 

15. The Courage To Be Disliked

Your power and your future lies in your own hands. This book helps you unlock that power. It is about liberation. This book is based on the theories of Alfred Adler. There are so many strong pieces of wisdom in this book that inspire you to live the life you desire to live.

16. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Be curious. Grab the ideas before they leave. Everyone in this world is creative in one way or the other. It's just that some find their path before while others later in their lives or maybe not. The only obstacle to the free flow of your creativity is the fear you hold within.

I cannot let the list come to an end without adding some fiction books to the list. Now there are so many fiction books that picking a few from them is just not possible. So, I am not adding any super famous books that everyone has heard of and made into movies, kind of books like Harry Potter and Twilight. These are books that are probably not that famous but are amazing to read.

17. The Truth About Forever

Even though the plot is quite predictable, this book is a delight to read. The journey of Macy is impeccable. Trying to find herself, dealing with the sudden loss of her father and self-blaming, she has locked her emotions up and never talks about them. She is struck with grief but tries her best to hold herself for her mother. Her truth game is the best part of the story. This book opens a lot of pages that may trigger a lot of emotions in you. 

18. Immortals Of Meluha (Shiva Trilogy)

Starting with the first book in the Shiva trilogy by Amish, the entire trilogy is worth gifting. A new approach to mythological fiction, Amish clearly changed my way of thinking about mythology. Do not expect it to be accurate and please do not consider the character of Shiva as Shivji -the god. Just read it as a Fiction with similar names as our mythological characters and you would love the book. 

19. Forest of Enchantments

It is actually the story of Ramayana from the point of view of 'Sita' but it is better if you do not actually link it with religion. This is the story of a journey that Sita takes and how it impacts her, evolves her, and fills her with power. If you are planning to gift a book to a woman, this is for sure one of the best books that can be on your hotlist.

20. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover 

It is an awesome page-turner, filled with twists and turns and big revelations. Everything mentioned in the book is related to the story and is very important. Though you may feel at times that you are being spoon-fed emotions and feelings if you are an emotionally intelligent person I would say that even that has some relevance. The story is very impactful and evolves very well. Though it is described to be a love triangle I believe it is so much more than that. It addresses serious issues like Gaslighting and how the situation for the victim becomes.

21. Normal People 

This love story is quite different from all the cliche romance novels I have read. Normal people living normal lives too have a major eventful life. It covers the feelings of first love, issues with class differences and depression. It reflects how honest communication could have changed so much. This book also links to the subject of abuse.