Books and authors play an important role in competitive exams like UPSC, SSC, and UPSSSC PET. Knowing about famous books and their writers can help you score better in the General Knowledge section. This article provides a well-organized list of important books and their authors, categorized by historical periods and genres, to make your preparation easier and more effective.
List of Famous Books and Authors from India History
Ancient India
| Title | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The Vedas | Various Authors | Sacred texts of Hinduism, consisting of Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and Atharvaveda. |
| Upanishads | Various Authors | Philosophical texts exploring the nature of reality and the self. |
| Mahabharata | Vyasa | Epic poem with the Bhagavad Gita and narratives of ancient Indian kings and heroes. |
| Ramayana | Valmiki | Epic about Lord Rama’s journey to rescue his wife, Sita. |
| Arthashastra | Chanakya | Ancient treatise on statecraft, economic policy, and military strategy. |
| Bhagavad Gita | Vyasa | Spiritual and philosophical conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna, part of the Mahabharata. |
| Panchatantra | Vishnu Sharma | Collection of ancient Indian fables and moral stories. |
| Ashtadhyayi | Panini | Foundational work on Sanskrit grammar. |
| Sushruta Samhita | Sushruta | Ancient treatise on surgery and medicine. |
| Charaka Samhita | Charaka | Ancient text on Ayurveda, Indian traditional medicine. |
| Nyaya Sutras | Gautama | Text on the Nyaya school of Indian philosophy, focusing on logic and reasoning. |
| Yoga Sutras | Patanjali | Seminal text on the philosophy and practice of yoga. |
| Manusmriti | Manu | Ancient legal code and moral guidelines for society. |
| Natya Shastra | Bharata Muni | Treatise on performing arts, covering drama, dance, and music. |
| Siddhartha | Hermann Hesse | Fictional novel inspired by the life of Gautama Buddha. |
| Aitareya Brahmana | Various Authors | Ancient Vedic text dealing with ritual ceremonies. |
| Taittiriya Upanishad | Various Authors | Philosophical Upanishad, part of the Krishna Yajur Veda. |
| Rigveda Samhita | Various Authors | Oldest Veda, containing hymns and prayers. |
| Jataka Tales | Various Authors | Stories about the previous births of Buddha. |
| Thirukkural | Thiruvalluvar | Tamil work with profound ethical and moral insights. |
Medieval Period
| Title | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Tuzk-e-Babri (Baburnama) | Emperor Babur | Autobiography of the first Mughal Emperor, chronicling his life and conquests. |
| Akbarnama | Abu’l-Fazl | Biographical account of Emperor Akbar’s reign, written by his courtier. |
| Tawarikh-i-Firoz Shahi | Ziauddin Barani | Historical account of the Delhi Sultanate during Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq’s reign. |
| Kitab-i-Yamini | Al-Biruni | Work on Indian history and culture by Persian scholar Al-Biruni. |
| Khulasatut-Tawarikh | Sujan Rai | Chronicle of the Mughal Empire from Babur to Shah Jahan. |
| Rajatarangini | Kalhana | Historical chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, covering ancient to medieval periods. |
| Fatwa-i-Jahandari | Ziauddin Barani | Letters and edicts of Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq. |
| Tuhfat al-Mujahidin | Malik Muhammad Jayasi | Epic poem in Awadhi language, narrating the love story of Padmavati and Alauddin Khilji. |
| Chandayan | Padmanabha | Sanskrit epic about the love story of Chandra and Kamalavati. |
| Gita Govinda | Jayadeva | Lyrical poem in Sanskrit, celebrating the love between Krishna and Radha. |
| Futuhat-i-Alamgiri | Muhammad Amin Qazvini | Persian work describing the military campaigns of Emperor Aurangzeb. |
| Shahnama-e-Islam | Jafer Thanesari | Persian epic celebrating the reign of Indian Muslim kings. |
| Padshahnama | Abdul Hamid Lahori | Official history of Emperor Shah Jahan’s reign. |
| Gulshan-i-Ishq | Nusrati | Persian romance poem narrating the love story of Prince Salim (Emperor Jahangir) and Anarkali. |
| Bhaktamal | Nabhadas | Hagiography of various Hindu saints and poets in Braj Bhasha. |
| Kitab-i-Nauras | Abdul Haq Dehlavi | Collection of Urdu poetry and biographies of poets from medieval India. |
| Kavirajamarga | King Amoghavarsha I | Early medieval Kannada work on poetics and aesthetics. |
| Kirti-Kalpa | King Bhoja | Sanskrit text on the art of poetry and aesthetics. |
| Lilavati | Bhaskara II | Medieval Indian mathematical treatise in Sanskrit. |
Modern Indian Period
| Title | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth | Mahatma Gandhi | Gandhi’s autobiography detailing his life, principles, and struggle for India’s independence. |
| India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy | Ramachandra Guha | A comprehensive account of India’s history post-independence. |
| The Discovery of India | Jawaharlal Nehru | Historical and philosophical narrative by India’s first Prime Minister. |
| Midnight’s Children | Salman Rushdie | Fictional work depicting India’s independence and post-independence period. |
| Train to Pakistan | Khushwant Singh | Novel set during the partition of India in 1947. |
| Freedom at Midnight | Dominique Lapierre & Larry Collins | Historical account of India’s struggle for independence and the events leading to the partition. |
| The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture, and Identity | Amartya Sen | A collection of essays exploring India’s history and diversity. |
| India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age | Gurcharan Das | Book on India’s economic transformation after independence. |
| The Great Indian Novel | Shashi Tharoor | Satirical novel retelling India’s history using characters from the Indian epics. |
| The God of Small Things | Arundhati Roy | Novel set in Kerala, exploring the complexities of India’s social and political landscape. |
| Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found | Suketu Mehta | Non-fiction work on the city of Mumbai, its people, and its contradictions. |
| In an Antique Land | Amitav Ghosh | Historical narrative intertwining the author’s experiences in Egypt with the life of a 12th-century Indian slave. |
| The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga | Novel exploring the darker aspects of modern India through the life of a driver. |
| India: A History | John Keay | Comprehensive history of India from ancient to modern times. |
| The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857 | William Dalrymple | Historical account of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and its aftermath. |
| Five Point Someone | Chetan Bhagat | Popular novel set in an Indian engineering college, addressing the pressures of the education system. |
| An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India | Shashi Tharoor | Critique of British colonial rule in India. |
| The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma | Gurcharan Das | Philosophical exploration of dharma and moral choices. |
| Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity | Katherine Boo | Non-fiction work based on the lives of slum dwellers in Mumbai. |
| The Shadow Lines | Amitav Ghosh | A Novel exploring the impact of historical events on individuals and families in India and Bangladesh. |
Books Written By Famous Historians
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| India’s Struggle for Independence | Bipan Chandra |
| The Discovery of India | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| Ancient India: From the Earliest Times to the First Century AD | Romila Thapar |
| The Wonder That Was India | A.L. Basham |
| The Argumentative Indian | Amartya Sen |
| A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century | Upinder Singh |
| India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy | Ramachandra Guha |
| The Great Indian Novel | Shashi Tharoor |
| The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857 | William Dalrymple |
| Freedom at Midnight | Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins |
| The Emergency: A Personal History | Coomi Kapoor |
| The Hindus: An Alternative History | Wendy Doniger |
| Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent | Pranay Lal |
| The White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India | William Dalrymple |
| India: A History | John Keay |
| The Idea of India | Sunil Khilnani |
| The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories | Partha Chatterjee |
| The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture, and Identity | Romila Thapar |
| Gandhi: An Autobiography – The Story of My Experiments with Truth | Mahatma Gandhi |
| The Indian War of Independence 1857 | V.D. Savarkar |
| The Great Hedge of India: The Search for the Living Barrier That Divided a People | Roy Moxham |
| India: From Midnight to the Millennium | Shashi Tharoor |
| India’s Ancient Past | R.S. Sharma |
| The Shadow Lines | Amitav Ghosh |
| India: A Portrait | Patrick French |
| A History of Modern India | Rajiv Ahir |
| In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India | Edward Luce |
| The Life of the Buddha | Ashvaghosha |
| The Scramble for India: Lessons of the 2009 Elections | Sagarika Ghose |
| The Making of Modern India: From Marx to Gandhi | Ranajit Guha |
Famous Books and Authors: Categorized by Genre
Classic Literature
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |
| 1984 | George Orwell |
| The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald |
| Moby-Dick | Herman Melville |
| War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy |
| Jane Eyre | Charlotte Brontë |
| The Catcher in the Rye | J.D. Salinger |
| Wuthering Heights | Emily Brontë |
| Dracula | Bram Stoker |
Modern Fiction
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| The Lord of the Rings | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |
| The Hobbit | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| The Harry Potter Series | J.K. Rowling |
| The Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins |
| The Da Vinci Code | Dan Brown |
| Gone Girl | Gillian Flynn |
| The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Stieg Larsson |
| The Help | Kathryn Stockett |
| The Kite Runner | Khaled Hosseini |
Mystery and Thriller
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Arthur Conan Doyle |
| Murder on the Orient Express | Agatha Christie |
| Gone Girl | Gillian Flynn |
| The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Stieg Larsson |
| The Silence of the Lambs | Thomas Harris |
| And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie |
| The Shining | Stephen King |
| The Da Vinci Code | Dan Brown |
| The Reversal | Michael Connelly |
| The Silent Patient | Alex Michaelides |
Science Fiction
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| Dune | Frank Herbert |
| 1984 | George Orwell |
| Brave New World | Aldous Huxley |
| The Handmaid’s Tale | Margaret Atwood |
| Fahrenheit 451 | Ray Bradbury |
| Ender’s Game | Orson Scott Card |
| Neuromancer | William Gibson |
| The War of the Worlds | H.G. Wells |
| Snow Crash | Neal Stephenson |
| The Left Hand of Darkness | Ursula K. Le Guin |
Fantasy
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| The Lord of the Rings | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Harry Potter Series | J.K. Rowling |
| The Chronicles of Narnia | C.S. Lewis |
| A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) | George R.R. Martin |
| The Hobbit | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| The Name of the Wind | Patrick Rothfuss |
| Mistborn: The Final Empire | Brandon Sanderson |
| The Final Empire | Brandon Sanderson |
| American Gods | Neil Gaiman |
| The Belgariad | David Eddings |
Romance
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen |
| Gone with the Wind | Margaret Mitchell |
| Outlander | Diana Gabaldon |
| The Notebook | Nicholas Sparks |
| Jane Eyre | Charlotte Brontë |
| Me Before You | Jojo Moyes |
| Wuthering Heights | Emily Brontë |
| The Fault in Our Stars | John Green |
| The Bridges of Madison County | Robert James Waller |
| The Rosie Project | Graeme Simsion |
Historical Fiction
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| All the Light We Cannot See | Anthony Doerr |
| The Book Thief | Markus Zusak |
| The Pillars of the Earth | Ken Follett |
| Wolf Hall | Hilary Mantel |
| Gone with the Wind | Margaret Mitchell |
| Memoirs of a Geisha | Arthur Golden |
| The Help | Kathryn Stockett |
| The Nightingale | Kristin Hannah |
| The Tattooist of Auschwitz | Heather Morris |
| The Underground Railroad | Colson Whitehead |
Non-Fiction (Biographies and Autobiographies)
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| The Diary of a Young Girl | Anne Frank |
| Long Walk to Freedom | Nelson Mandela |
| Steve Jobs | Walter Isaacson |
| The Autobiography of Malcolm X | Malcolm X and Alex Haley |
| Born a Crime | Trevor Noah |
| Becoming | Michelle Obama |
| Eat, Pray, Love | Elizabeth Gilbert |
| Into the Wild | Jon Krakauer |
| The Glass Castle | Jeannette Walls |
| Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China | Jung Chang |
Self-Help and Personal Development
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People | Stephen Covey |
| How to Win Friends and Influence People | Dale Carnegie |
| Mindset: The New Psychology of Success | Carol S. Dweck |
| Atomic Habits | James Clear |
| The Power of Now | Eckhart Tolle |
| Thinking, Fast and Slow | Daniel Kahneman |
| The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck | Mark Manson |
| You Are a Badass | Jen Sincero |
| Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance | Angela Duckworth |
| The Four Agreements | Don Miguel Ruiz |
Philosophy
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| Meditations | Marcus Aurelius |
| Thus Spoke Zarathustra | Friedrich Nietzsche |
| Beyond Good and Evil | Friedrich Nietzsche |
| The Republic | Plato |
| The Prince | Niccolò Machiavelli |
| Walden | Henry David Thoreau |
| The Art of War | Sun Tzu |
| Siddhartha | Hermann Hesse |
| The Divine Comedy | Dante Alighieri |
| The Stranger | Albert Camus |
Science and Nature
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| A Brief History of Time | Stephen Hawking |
| Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind | Yuval Noah Harari |
| Cosmos | Carl Sagan |
| The Selfish Gene | Richard Dawkins |
| Silent Spring | Rachel Carson |
| The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks | Rebecca Skloot |
| The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History | Elizabeth Kolbert |
| Guns, Germs, and Steel | Jared Diamond |
| The Origin of Species | Charles Darwin |
| The Emperor of All Maladies | Siddhartha Mukherjee |
Psychology
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| Man’s Search for Meaning | Viktor E. Frankl |
| Thinking, Fast and Slow | Daniel Kahneman |
| Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking | Susan Cain |
| Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking | Malcolm Gladwell |
| The Power of Habit | Charles Duhigg |
| Emotional Intelligence | Daniel Goleman |
| Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience | Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi |
| Predictably Irrational | Dan Ariely |
| The Body Keeps the Score | Bessel van der Kolk |
| Stumbling on Happiness | Daniel Gilbert |
Business and Economics
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| Rich Dad Poor Dad | Robert Kiyosaki |
| The Lean Startup | Eric Ries |
| Good to Great | Jim Collins |
| Zero to One | Peter Thiel |
| Thinking, Fast and Slow | Daniel Kahneman |
| The 4-Hour Workweek | Timothy Ferriss |
| Freakonomics | Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner |
| The Innovator’s Dilemma | Clayton Christensen |
| The E-Myth Revisited | Michael E. Gerber |
| Start with Why | Simon Sinek |
Politics and Social Issues
| Book Name | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| The Communist Manifesto | Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels |
| The Federalist Papers | Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay |
| The Feminine Mystique | Betty Friedan |
| The Color Purple | Alice Walker |
| The Road to Serfdom | Friedrich Hayek |
| The New Jim Crow | Michelle Alexander |
| Between the World and Me | Ta-Nehisi Coates |
| Hillbilly Elegy | J.D. Vance |
| Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City | Matthew Desmond |
| Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind | Yuval Noah Harari |
Poetry
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| Leaves of Grass | Walt Whitman |
| The Waste Land | T.S. Eliot |
| The Raven | Edgar Allan Poe |
| Howl | Allen Ginsberg |
| Beowulf | Anonymous |
| The Canterbury Tales | Geoffrey Chaucer |
| Paradise Lost | John Milton |
| The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock | T.S. Eliot |
| The Divine Comedy | Dante Alighieri |
| The Iliad | Homer |
Travel and Adventure
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| Into the Wild | Jon Krakauer |
| The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho |
| Eat, Pray, Love | Elizabeth Gilbert |
| Wild | Cheryl Strayed |
| On the Road | Jack Kerouac |
| Travels with Charley: In Search of America | John Steinbeck |
| In Patagonia | Bruce Chatwin |
| Seven Years in Tibet | Heinrich Harrer |
| Into Thin Air | Jon Krakauer |
| A Walk in the Woods | Bill Bryson |
Religion and Spirituality
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| The Bible | Various authors |
| The Quran | Various authors |
| The Bhagavad Gita | Various authors |
| The Tao Te Ching | Laozi |
| The Dhammapada | Various authors |
| The Prophet | Kahlil Gibran |
| Mere Christianity | C.S. Lewis |
| The Power of Now | Eckhart Tolle |
| Siddhartha | Hermann Hesse |
| The Celestine Prophecy | James Redfield |
Science Fiction and Fantasy Series
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| The Lord of the Rings | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Harry Potter Series | J.K. Rowling |
| The Chronicles of Narnia | C.S. Lewis |
| A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) | George R.R. Martin |
| Dune Series | Frank Herbert |
| The Wheel of Time | Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson |
| The Foundation Trilogy | Isaac Asimov |
| The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams |
| The Dark Tower Series | Stephen King |
| The Discworld Series | Terry Pratchett |
Young Adult and Children’s Fiction
| Book Name | Author |
|---|---|
| Harry Potter Series | J.K. Rowling |
| The Hunger Games Trilogy | Suzanne Collins |
| The Chronicles of Narnia | C.S. Lewis |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |
| The Giver | Lois Lowry |
| The Percy Jackson Series | Rick Riordan |
| The Fault in Our Stars | John Green |
| The Outsiders | S.E. Hinton |
| Matilda | Roald Dahl |
| The Hobbit | J.R.R. Tolkien |
Mystery and Detective Series
| Book Series | Author |
|---|---|
| Sherlock Holmes Series | Arthur Conan Doyle |
| Hercule Poirot Series | Agatha Christie |
| Miss Marple Series | Agatha Christie |
| Nancy Drew Series | Carolyn Keene |
| The Hardy Boys Series | Franklin W. Dixon |
| Alex Cross Series | James Patterson |
| Inspector Morse Series | Colin Dexter |
| Stephanie Plum Series | Janet Evanovich |
| Jack Reacher Series | Lee Child |
| The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Series | Stieg Larsson |
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