First edition of Marquez's One Hundred Years of SolitudeWikimedia

I like books and I think everyone else should too. When I buy birthday presents I buy books, and I take it seriously: I need to know how often they read, how fast they read, whether they read to immerse themselves or to relax, genres and styles and authors they’ve explored and ones they’ve considered but not branched into yet. And I need to know if they even like reading at all.

When they don’t, it’s trickier and much, much more worthwhile. It’s all very well to buy your favourite book for someone who you know will devour it (for known devourers of excellent fiction I recommend, as I probably always will, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez), but to pick a book for a picky reader is a knack. I’m going smugly claim that I’ve got it. None of the following are particularly tough reads, and when given with worthy intentions to a sceptical friend they may help to nudge them in the right direction.

Published in 1952 the book contributed to his winning the Nobel Prize in 1954 Wikimedia

For the friend who always starts but never finishes anything, try The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. This is so short it really can be done in an afternoon, and a good selling point is that it’s excellent for improving cultural capital because people quote it all the time.

For the friend who’d rather read non-fiction, I recommend Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Pirsig. I’ll be honest: I didn’t love this. However, so many people do that I feel I can’t really give preference to my own philosophical favourite Sophie’s World (Jostein Gaarder). Either way, both are classics.

For the friend who’ll watch Hollywood blockbusters but won’t read books, I suggest Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney. Whilst Homer’s epic Greek poetry remains the true basis for Western fiction, many argue that Beowulf’s anonymous author is one of the greatest contributors to the English language. If you were alive twelve hundred years ago, this is what you got instead of James Bond or The Avengers.

The novel of an 18th century perfume apprenticeWikimedia

For the friend who likes horror, think about Perfume by Patrick Süskind. It’s the chilling tale of a murderer with an inhumanely acute sense of smell. From repulsive descriptions of the pungent Parisian fish market, to the scientific detailing of scent distillation, to the sinister stalking of young women, this will shock and disgust the most avid of Saw fans.

For the friend who likes a bit of romance, give them I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. This is the diary of seventeen year old Cassandra whose wild, whimsical life in a crumbling castle is disturbed by the arrival of two handsome young men from America. I’m not a great reader of love stories, but this is overwhelmingly beautiful and I can’t recommend it enough.

For the friend who loves to laugh, pick Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. A satire of many pastoral novels that came before it, the dry and arch narrative of Flora’s adjustment to the outmoded country life of her cousins will have your unwilling reader in hysterics.

The Outsiders was written when Hinton was just 18Wikimedia

For the friend who loves to cry, I suggest The Outsiders by SE Hinton. I do cry when reading a lot of books, but I completely howled during this one. It’s set in Oklahoma in 1965 and it’s about division and hatred rooted in socioeconomic hierarchy, but mostly it’s about friendship and brotherhood and love and loss, and it leaves whoever touches it feeling raw and hurt.

For the friend who needs their faith in humanity restored, give them I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. This one comes with a trigger warning – the first instalment of Angelou’s heart-breaking and heart-warming autobiography discusses violent sexual abuse and racism. It’s upsetting, but ultimately it is about the power of endurance and survival that humans possess.

And finally, for the friend we all have who needs knocking off their cultural pedestal, try Ulysses by James Joyce. I tried to read this and obviously I failed. Anyone who can tackle this monster (and they do exist – I’ve met some of them) deserves a pint as well.