Books make the best presents, unless the person you’re giving them to is a horrible book-hating cave-monster and in that case why are you even giving them anything.
The Elements of Style, by Strunk & White
Bonus points if it's the version of this classic that's illustrated by the luminous Maira Kalman; that'll make it feel more like a keepsake and less like a standard-issue textbook (albeit a wonderful one) on the first day of sophomore English Lit.
Source: thescoutmag.com
This Is Water, by David Foster Wallace
This legendary speech was given by the late David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College and contains the kind of simple yet staggeringly important advice that any high school/college/grad school student/actually human, in general, would benefit from thinking about for at least a few minutes.
"It is," the speech ends, "about simple awareness — awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over: 'This is water, this is water.'"
Source: csmonitor.com