10 Books To Read On Your Birthday

What is better than spending your birthday with someone that can inspire you and at the same time entertain you. By someone I mean books. Books are for sure, one of the best tool that can make your birthday more than just a party day. Here is a list of 10 books perfect to read on your birthday.

Birthday Stories: By Haruki Murakami

This is a collection of short stories from some of the most famous authors ever – including David Foster Wallace, Lewis Robinson and William Trevor. These anthologies is edited and introduced by Murakami himself. In addition, there’s also Murakami’s dreamlike and surreal story ‘Birthday Girl’ which steals the show.

The Girl Who Drank The Moon: By Kelly Barnhill

The residents of Protectorate have an annual tradition to leave a baby at the doorstep of a forest witch as a sacrifice to protect the others. But they don’t know that the witch is a kind and gentle woman, who lives with a wise Swamp Monster and a tiny dragon, and feeds babies moonlight. This feel good middle grade fantasy is a cozy read for your birthday.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: By Toshikazu Kawaguchi

In this magical realism, the setting is an old café in Tokyo which offers the chance to travel back in time. However – the person must return before the coffee goes cold. In this book, we look at four people who take this chance, reflecting on their relationships and memories. This book is the perfect book full of reminiscences to read on a birthday.

Gitanjali: By Rabindranath Tagore

This beautiful collection of Nobel prize winning poems is best described as love poetry addressed to God. These poems are teeming with devotion, but it is never explicit or form oriented. Tagore draws on Indian leitmotifs of nature and relationships, using evocative imagery typical to India. The beauty of its words is the best way to open a birthday with.

Emma: By Jane Austen

This is Austen’s longest work, with a very well fledged out protagonist. Emma is a beautiful, smart woman who engages in relentless matchmaking. However, in her pride, she makes entirely the wrong matches for others and herself, with disastrous repercussions. This book is about maturing and growing, and hence perfect for a birthday.

Like The Flowing River: By Paulo Coelho

This is a collection of essays and short stories by Brazilian writer Coelho, all of which are full of wisdom and philosophy. But this isn’t the regular, dreary philosophy – it is vibrant and colourful. These are reflections on subjects as diverse as archery, music, dance to bring in a new year in your life with wisdom and grace.

The Prophet: By Kahlil Gibran

This timeless collection of philosophical meditations full of sagacity compiled in the form of lectures from  a prophet to villagers is Gibran’s magnum opus. It is also a great way to begin a new revolution around the sun because of its sheer transformative capacity and its gentle reassurance that everything is the way it is meant to be.

Time Stops at Shamli: By Ruskin Bond

This book is an anthology of some of Bond’s best prose and poetry. These stories are odes to the simpler and natural joys of life, and an evocation of an India stuck in a time loop. They are often wistful and unsentimental, but always shimmering with the very stuff that makes humans alive.

The Self-Love Experiment: By Shannon Kaiser

Birthdays are celebrations of the self, so what better way to bring in a birthday than with some self-love progress? This non fiction is the ultimate guide to becoming your own bestie. It outlines fifteen principles that will empower you with the confidence and self-esteem you need to rule the world.

The Book of Delights: By Ross Gay

This book is a list of 365 essays by Ross Gay, about simple things he took delight in on each day of the year. Gay wrote this book as a kind of yearly challenge, and the result is a concise book full of comfort and simple joy. This is a book that will make you smile even on your bleakest days, because it will remind you of the sheer beauty life holds.

Also Read: Passion Based Learning: Different Ways to Develop Passion for Learning