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Books for UPSC Prelims 2020

As we know UPSC thrills us by giving vast Syllabus it is difficult to find all the information in just a single book. Many people would suggest TataMcGraw Hill Paper 1 (Tata McGraw Hill – GENERAL STUDIES MANUAL 2019 ) for General Studies Paper 1 and TataMcGraw Hill Paper 2 for CSAT Paper 2. Even though TataMCGraw Hill Paper 2 is more than enough for CSAT to get qualifying mark but TMH Paper 1 is not enough and if you want to be thorough with basics you have to go for standard textbooks. You need not read all NCERT books as it will take months to finish. I have mentioned important NCERT books to read, those books are mandatory. Extensive reading is not bad so read any other NCERT if you find that subject interesting. I have even listed some books for extensive reading apart from books for UPSC Prelims. Some of you may find easy to read as an E-Book and some may not. those who want to buy NCERT books as hardcopy Click here. If you can read e-copy then just download new NCERT books, Download Old NCERT books from the links. If you have any Additional information please share it by commenting on this post..

Books for UPSC Prelims:

  • Which atlas is best Orient Blackswan school atlas or Oxford School atlas?
    Oxford School Atlas. It contains very detailed maps.
History:
  1. Old NCERT X, XI, XII – Download
    Ancient_India (RS_Sharma)
    Medieval India (Romila Thapar)
    Modern India (Bipan Chandra)
  2. Moden India- Spectrum Publication (If you read this book you can skip Modern India NCERT)
  3. Struggle for Independence – Bipin Chandra
-> Now Modern India NCERT written by Bipin Chandra is available as hardcopy from Orient Blackswan publication. History of Modern India.
-> Some people would suggest From Plassey to Partition – A History Of Modern India.  But it is not necessary. This book was written with greater analysis and depth which will make you an intellectual but it is not required for our GS preparation. If you have enough time then you can read those books for UPSC Prelims.
Culture:
                1) Indian Art and Culture -Nitin Singhania

Indian Polity:

  1. Indian Polity – Lakshmikanth
  2. NCERT (IX-XII)
    Political Science (Democratic Politics 1)
    Political Science (Democratic Politics 2)
    Political Science (Indian Constitution at Work)
    Political Science (Political Theory)
  3. Indian Constitution for References
  4. An Introduction to the constitution of India – D.D. Basu (This book is for extensive reading only. It will be in a complicated language to read and hard to interpret. First, you have to be strong in basics to read this book. If you are a newbie just buy  ‘Indian Polity – M Lakshmikanth’ )

Economics :

  1. NCERT XII
    Economics (Introductory Macro Economics)
    Economics (Indian Economic Development)
  2. Indian Economy – Ramesh Singh
  3. Indian Economy Key Concepts – Shankar Ganesh [Best for Basic Understanding]
  4. Economic Survey
  5. Newspaper
If you are not good at basics start with ‘Indian Economy Key Concepts – Shankar Ganesh‘.

Current Affairs:

  1. Daily Newspaper
  2. LearningSpaceDigital.com
  3. Yojana / Kurukshetra
  4. India Year Book
Do not fail to read Newspaper Daily. Reading a newspaper is not enough you should know how to read the newspaper and make notes. Just don’t take down notes on facts as only state Public Service Commission exams like TNPSC will give importance to facts. In UPSC, the focus will be on Concepts and so you should be reading the editorial, Op-ed and should take notes like preparing for mains exam. That is you should be able to write an essay on the topic. Ask many questions to yourself and search for extra information on the internet. It is recommended to read The Hindu Newspaper. Any Current affair material can’t replace that. If you need to read some magazines read gktoday.com daily in case of failures to read it regularly buy an e-book available in their website for each month.

General Science:

  1. NCERT X
  2. Science Reporter magazine

Above are not very important. You can cover this with current affairs.

CSAT:

  1. Buy General Studies for Civil Services Preliminary Examination Paper
  2. Arihant – Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT <- Best buy for Aptitude Questions

Since CSAT was made to be just a qualifying paper you need to score just 33% which is very easy to obtain. anyhow if you want to do some practice read this book. it is always recommended to work out previous year question papers and model exams rather than simply memorizing formulas as UPSC will always concentrate on logical reasoning rather than quantitative aptitude. Try to solve CAT question papers then this will look very easy to solve(Recommended only for geeks).

Previous Year Question Papers:

  1. 24 Years of UPSC Prelims Question Papers – Disha Publication

Extensive Reading:

These are not the books for UPSC Prelims. Apart from Prelims if you like to read some extra books for your extensive reading habit I will mention some of the books. But before doing the extensive reading, you must be sure that you have finished all intensive reading and being thorough with the basics. Some may criticize our extensive reading habit telling that it is not going to help us in any manner to clear our exam. Their Point of view is extremely wrong. These books are not at all useless. The books will give us very good conceptual knowledge so that we may link all our facts and so the facts also won’t be forgotten easily. For Eg: You would have memorized some years or name and would have forgotten it after a month or later. If you come across a story linking those years and names you will never forget. We will never forget the Tyrion Lannister, but we would forget a freedom fighter name. Because in the first case we know the story and in the second case, we only know her name. So you can be clear that extensive reading always helps us to gain more. My greatest role model for extensive reading is Mullai Muhilan IAS. If you search for some books in forumias.com there will be tons of recommended books. but you cannot read all those before clearing UPSC Prelims. Let me list some:
  1. India After Gandhi – Ramachandra Guha
  2. Pax Indica – Sasi Tharoor
  3. The Argumentative Indian – Amartya Sen
  4. The Discovery of India- Jawaharlal Nehru
  5. Story of My Experiments with Truth – Mahatma Gandhi
  6. India Unbound – G. Das
  7. The Life of Mahatma Gandhi – Louis Fischer
  8. Imagining India – N. Nilekani

I’m mentioning 10’s of books because your taste may vary or some may have already read those books.

Where can I buy these Books?

These Books for UPSC Prelims can be easily bought through online. If you want to buy NCERT books then you can buy it easily in Chennai and Madurai. I have mentioned some of the address of shops that deals with NCERT  textbook in the earlier post. NCERT books are of two types. New syllabus NCERTs and Old NCERT books. For some subjects old is gold. So the old books will be better than new ones. and so they are preferred as books for UPSC prelims Old NCERTs are not found in their official server so Download old NCERT e-Books for free from our website.
_______________________________________________________________________

Other Important Links:
UPSC Prelims Previous Year Question paper with answer keys
Top 10 IAS academy in Chennai
Manidhaneyam IAS Academy
All India Civil Service Coaching Centre

P.S: The Buy links for all the books are affiliate links. If you buy books for UPSC prelims through these links it would be helpful for this blog.

View Comments

    • 1) Success Book House, No 2137 L Block, 7th Street 12th Main Road, Anna Nagar, Chennai - 600040
      2) Success Book Shop, No. 7, Prasanth Apartment, 1st Main Road, Gandhi Nagar, Adyar, Chennai - 600020
      3) BookMark, AF Block, 8th Street, 12th Mainroad, Anna Nagar, Chennai - 600040
      The above book shops have old versions of NCERT books too.
      For New NCERTs you can go to any shops mentioned below
      4) http://www.justdial.com/Chennai/CBSE-Books-%3Cnear%3E-T-Nagar/ct-272115
      Note: Old Versions are recommended for history.

    • I hope u r asking about manidhanaeyam. Classes may start in the 2nd/3rd week of august.

  • Sir, i apply upsc prelims coaching this year.... i confused to choosing the optional subject... please guide me for choosing the optional... i'm Graduate in Computer Science(B.Sc.CS) and Post graduate in Computer Applications(MCA)...

    • I guess you are 2016 prelims batch so don't worry about optional now. just read all subjects and go through syllabus of all optional subjects. Spend at least a week to decide about optional. Decide whether to select science subjects or non science. I suggest you to select some subjects from humanities. Don't select geography or pub ad just for the simple reason that every aspirants are choosing it. be unique and select one subject which makes you keen on reading it. eg: I'm interested in reading international politics and relations so that drives me towards political science even though i'm from maths background.

  • Sir, I would like to study in manidhanaeyam IAS Academy but i don't know how to apply. plz guide me

  • Respected sir can you help me for the book ancient indian history and civilisation by s n sen it is very good book for ancient india .I lives in Chandrapur Maharashtra. Can you send me this book to my address

  • Hi sir.. I want to study in tamil...Plz help me.. How to collect material. It available in market?. Im selected this year MNT weekend batches..classes not yet started. So plz give me a idea how to prepare tamil...

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