Famous Books and Authors PDF

List of famous and important books and their authors, PDF for free download. Book are categories as per historical period and generic, useful for preparation of UPSC, SSC, UPSSSC PET and all competitive exams.

List of Famous Books and Authors

Ancient Period – India

20 important books that were written during ancient India:

1. “The Vedas” – The sacred texts of Hinduism, consisting of Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and Atharvaveda.
2. “Upanishads” – Philosophical texts exploring the nature of reality and the self.
3. “Mahabharata” – An epic poem containing the Bhagavad Gita and narratives of ancient Indian kings and heroes.
4. “Ramayana” – Another ancient epic depicting the journey of Lord Rama to rescue his wife Sita.
5. “Arthashastra” by Chanakya – An ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy, and military strategy.
6. “Bhagavad Gita” – A part of the Mahabharata, it is a spiritual and philosophical conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna.
7. “Panchatantra” – A collection of ancient Indian fables and moral stories.
8. “Ashtadhyayi” by Panini – A foundational work on Sanskrit grammar.
9. “Sushruta Samhita” – A treatise on surgery and medicine, attributed to the ancient sage Sushruta.
10. “Charaka Samhita” – An ancient text on Ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine), attributed to the sage Charaka.
11. “Nyaya Sutras” by Gautama – A text on the Nyaya school of Indian philosophy, which deals with logic and reasoning.
12. “Yoga Sutras” by Patanjali – A seminal text on the philosophy and practice of yoga.
13. “Manusmriti” (Laws of Manu) – An ancient legal code and moral guidelines for society.
14. “Natya Shastra” by Bharata Muni – A treatise on performing arts, covering drama, dance, and music.
15. “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse – A fictional novel inspired by the life of Gautama Buddha.
16. “Aitareya Brahmana” – An ancient Vedic text dealing with ritual ceremonies.
17. “Taittiriya Upanishad” – A philosophical Upanishad, part of the Krishna Yajur Veda.
18. “Rigveda Samhita” – The oldest of the four Vedas, containing hymns and prayers.
19. “Jataka Tales” – A collection of stories about the previous births of Buddha.
20. “Thirukkural” by Thiruvalluvar – A Tamil work containing profound ethical and moral insights.

Medieval Period – India

20 important books that were written during the medieval history of India:

1. “Tuzk-e-Babri” (Baburnama) by Emperor Babur – An autobiography of the first Mughal Emperor, Babur, chronicling his life and conquests.
2. “Akbarnama” by Abu’l-Fazl – A biographical account of the reign of Emperor Akbar, written by one of his courtiers.
3. “Tawarikh-i-Firoz Shahi” by Ziauddin Barani – A historical account of the Delhi Sultanate during the reign of Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq.
4. “Kitab-i-Yamini” by Al-Biruni – An important work on Indian history and culture written by the Persian scholar Al-Biruni.
5. “Khulasatut-Tawarikh” by Sujan Rai – A historical chronicle of the Mughal Empire, covering the period from Babur to Shah Jahan.
6. “Rajatarangini” by Kalhana – A historical chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, covering ancient to medieval periods.
7. “Fatwa-i-Jahandari” by Ziauddin Barani – A collection of letters and edicts of Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq, written by his courtier Ziauddin Barani.
8. “Tuhfat al-Mujahidin” by Malik Muhammad Jayasi – A famous epic poem in Awadhi language, narrating the love story of Padmavati and Alauddin Khilji.
9. “Chandayan” by Padmanabha – A medieval Sanskrit epic about the love story of Chandra and Kamalavati.
10. “Gita Govinda” by Jayadeva – A lyrical poem in Sanskrit, celebrating the love between Krishna and Radha.
11. “Futuhat-i-Alamgiri” by Muhammad Amin Qazvini – A Persian work describing the military campaigns of Emperor Aurangzeb.
12. “Shahnama-e-Islam” by Jafer Thanesari – A Persian epic celebrating the reign of various Indian Muslim kings.
13. “Padshahnama” by Abdul Hamid Lahori – An official history of Emperor Shah Jahan’s reign, written in Persian.
14. “Tuhfat al-Mujahidin” by Malik Muhammad Jayasi – A Sufi romance epic in Awadhi language, depicting the love story of Padmavati and Alauddin Khilji.
15. “Gulshan-i-Ishq” by Nusrati – A Persian romance poem narrating the love story of prince Salim (Emperor Jahangir) and Anarkali.
16. “Bhaktamal” by Nabhadas – A hagiography of various Hindu saints and poets, written in Braj Bhasha.
17. “Kitab-i-Nauras” by Abdul Haq Dehlavi – A collection of Urdu poetry and biographies of poets from medieval India.
18. “Kavirajamarga” by King Amoghavarsha I – An early medieval Kannada work on poetics and aesthetics.
19. “Kirti-Kalpa” by King Bhoja – A Sanskrit text on the art of poetry and aesthetics.
20. “Lilavati” by Bhaskara II – An important medieval Indian mathematical treatise in Sanskrit.

Modern India Period

20 important books that were written during modern Indian history:

1. “An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth” by Mahatma Gandhi – Gandhi’s autobiography detailing his life, principles, and struggle for India’s independence.
2. “India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy” by Ramachandra Guha – A comprehensive account of India’s history post-independence.
3. “The Discovery of India” by Jawaharlal Nehru – A historical and philosophical narrative by India’s first Prime Minister.
4. “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie – A fictional work depicting India’s independence and post-independence period.
5. “Train to Pakistan” by Khushwant Singh – A novel set during the partition of India in 1947.
6. “Freedom at Midnight” by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins – A historical account of India’s struggle for independence and the events leading to the partition.
7. “The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture, and Identity” by Amartya Sen – A collection of essays exploring India’s history and diversity.
8. “India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age” by Gurcharan Das – A book on India’s economic transformation after independence.
9. “The Great Indian Novel” by Shashi Tharoor – A satirical novel retelling India’s history using characters from the Indian epics.
10. “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy – A novel set in Kerala, exploring the complexities of India’s social and political landscape.
11. “Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found” by Suketu Mehta – A non-fiction work on the city of Mumbai, its people, and its contradictions.
12. “In an Antique Land” by Amitav Ghosh – A historical narrative intertwining the author’s experiences in Egypt with the life of a 12th-century Indian slave.
13. “The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga – A novel that explores the darker aspects of modern India through the life of a driver.
14. “India: A History” by John Keay – A comprehensive history of India from ancient to modern times.
15. “The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857” by William Dalrymple – A historical account of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and its aftermath.
16. “Five Point Someone” by Chetan Bhagat – A popular novel set in an Indian engineering college, addressing the pressures of the education system.
17. “An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India” by Shashi Tharoor – A critique of British colonial rule in India.
18. “The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma” by Gurcharan Das – A philosophical exploration of dharma and moral choices.
19. “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity” by Katherine Boo – A non-fiction work based on the lives of slum dwellers in Mumbai.
20. “The Shadow Lines” by Amitav Ghosh – A novel exploring the impact of historical events on individuals and families in India and Bangladesh.

Books related to Indian history

1. “India’s Struggle for Independence” by Bipan Chandra
2. “The Discovery of India” by Jawaharlal Nehru
3. “Ancient India: From the Earliest Times to the First Century AD” by Romila Thapar
4. “The Wonder That Was India” by A.L. Basham
5. “The Argumentative Indian” by Amartya Sen
6. “A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century” by Upinder Singh
7. “India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy” by Ramachandra Guha
8. “The Great Indian Novel” by Shashi Tharoor
9. “The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857” by William Dalrymple
10. “Freedom at Midnight” by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins
11. “The Emergency: A Personal History” by Coomi Kapoor
12. “The Hindus: An Alternative History” by Wendy Doniger
13. “Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent” by Pranay Lal
14. “The White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India” by William Dalrymple
15. “India: A History” by John Keay
16. “The Idea of India” by Sunil Khilnani
17. “The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories” by Partha Chatterjee
18. “The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture, and Identity” by Romila Thapar
19. “Gandhi: An Autobiography – The Story of My Experiments with Truth” by Mahatma Gandhi
20. “The Indian War of Independence 1857” by V.D. Savarkar
21. “The Great Hedge of India: The Search for the Living Barrier That Divided a People” by Roy Moxham
22. “India: From Midnight to the Millennium” by Shashi Tharoor
23. “India’s Ancient Past” by R.S. Sharma
24. “The Shadow Lines” by Amitav Ghosh
25. “India: A Portrait” by Patrick French
26. “A History of Modern India” by Rajiv Ahir
27. “In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India” by Edward Luce
28. “The Life of the Buddha” by Ashvaghosha
29. “The Scramble for India: Lessons of the 2009 Elections” by Sagarika Ghose
30. “The Making of Modern India: From Marx to Gandhi” by Ranajit Guha

Famous Books and Authors PDF is given at the bottom of this post.

Famous Books and Authors generic Category wise

Classic Literature:

1. “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen
2. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
3. “1984” by George Orwell
4. “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville
6. “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy
7. “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë
8. “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger
9. “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë
10. “Dracula” by Bram Stoker

Modern Fiction:

1. “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
3. “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien
4. “The Harry Potter Series” by J.K. Rowling
5. “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins
6. “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown
7. “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn
8. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson
9. “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett
10. “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini

Mystery and Thriller:

1. “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. “Murder on the Orient Express” by Agatha Christie
3. “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn
4. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson
5. “The Silence of the Lambs” by Thomas Harris
6. “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie
7. “The Shining” by Stephen King
8. “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown
9. “The Reversal” by Michael Connelly
10. “The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides

Science Fiction:

1. “Dune” by Frank Herbert
2. “1984” by George Orwell
3. “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
4. “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
5. “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury
6. “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card
7. “Neuromancer” by William Gibson
8. “The War of the Worlds” by H.G. Wells
9. “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson
10. “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula K. Le Guin

Fantasy:

1. “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. “Harry Potter Series” by J.K. Rowling
3. “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis
4. “A Song of Ice and Fire” (Game of Thrones) by George R.R. Martin
5. “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien
6. “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss
7. “Mistborn: The Final Empire” by Brandon Sanderson
8. “The Final Empire” by Brandon Sanderson
9. “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman
10. “The Belgariad” by David Eddings

Romance:

1. “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen
2. “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell
3. “Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon
4. “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks
5. “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë
6. “Me Before You” by Jojo Moyes
7. “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë
8. “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green
9. “The Bridges of Madison County” by Robert James Waller
10. “The Rosie Project” by Graeme Simsion

Historical Fiction:

1. “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr
2. “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak
3. “The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett
4. “Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel
5. “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell
6. “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden
7. “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett
8. “The Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah
9. “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” by Heather Morris
10. “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead

Non-Fiction (Biographies and Autobiographies):

1. “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank
2. “Long Walk to Freedom” by Nelson Mandela
3. “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson
4. “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
5. “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah
6. “Becoming” by Michelle Obama
7. “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert
8. “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer
9. “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls
10. “Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China” by Jung Chang

Self-Help and Personal Development:

1. “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey
2. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
3. “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck
4. “Atomic Habits” by James Clear
5. “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle
6. “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman
7. “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” by Mark Manson
8. “You Are a Badass” by Jen Sincero
9. “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” by Angela Duckworth
10. “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz

Philosophy:

1. “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius
2. “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” by Friedrich Nietzsche
3. “Beyond Good and Evil” by Friedrich Nietzsche
4. “The Republic” by Plato
5. “The Prince” by Niccolò Machiavelli
6. “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau
7. “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu
8. “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse
9. “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri
10. “The Stranger” by Albert Camus

Science and Nature:

1. “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking
2. “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari
3. “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan
4. “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins
5. “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson
6. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot
7. “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History” by Elizabeth Kolbert
8. “Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond
9. “The Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin
10. “The Emperor of All Maladies” by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Psychology:

1. “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl
2. “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman
3. “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain
4. “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell
5. “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg
6. “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman
7. “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
8. “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely
9. “The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel van der Kolk
10. “Stumbling on Happiness” by Daniel Gilbert

Business and Economics:

1. “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki
2. “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries
3. “Good to Great” by Jim Collins
4. “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel
5. “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman
6. “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss
7. “Freakonomics” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
8. “The Innovator’s Dilemma” by Clayton Christensen
9. “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael E. Gerber
10. “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek

Politics and Social Issues:

1. “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
2. “The Federalist Papers” by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
3. “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan
4. “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker
5. “The Road to Serfdom” by Friedrich Hayek
6. “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander
7. “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
8. “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance
9. “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” by Matthew Desmond
10. “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari

Poetry:

1. “Leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman
2. “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot
3. “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
4. “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg
5. “Beowulf” (Anonymous)
6. “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer
7. “Paradise Lost” by John Milton
8. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot
9. “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri
10. “The Iliad” by Homer

Travel and Adventure:

1. “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer
2. “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho
3. “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert
4. “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed
5. “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac
6. “Travels with Charley: In Search of America” by John Steinbeck
7. “In Patagonia” by Bruce Chatwin
8. “Seven Years in Tibet” by Heinrich Harrer
9. “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer
10. “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson

Religion and Spirituality:

1. “The Bible” (Various authors)
2. “The Quran” (Various authors)
3. “The Bhagavad Gita” (Various authors)
4. “The Tao Te Ching” by Laozi
5. “The Dhammapada” (Various authors)
6. “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran
7. “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis
8. “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle
9. “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse
10. “The Celestine Prophecy” by James Redfield

Science Fiction and Fantasy Series:

1. “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. “Harry Potter Series” by J.K. Rowling
3. “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis
4. “A Song of Ice and Fire” (Game of Thrones) by George R.R. Martin
5. “Dune Series” by Frank Herbert
6. “The Wheel of Time” by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
7. “The Foundation Trilogy” by Isaac Asimov
8. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams
9. “The Dark Tower Series” by Stephen King
10. “The Discworld Series” by Terry Pratchett

Young Adult and Children’s Fiction:

1. “Harry Potter Series” by J.K. Rowling
2. “The Hunger Games Trilogy” by Suzanne Collins
3. “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis
4. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
5. “The Giver” by Lois Lowry
6. “The Percy Jackson Series” by Rick Riordan
7. “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green
8. “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton
9. “Matilda” by Roald Dahl
10. “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien

Mystery and Detective Series:

1. “Sherlock Holmes” Series by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. “Hercule Poirot” Series by Agatha Christie
3. “Miss Marple” Series by Agatha Christie
4. “Nancy Drew” Series by Carolyn Keene
5. “The Hardy Boys” Series by Franklin W. Dixon
6. “Alex Cross” Series by James Patterson
7. “Inspector Morse” Series by Colin Dexter
8. “Stephanie Plum” Series by Janet Evanovich
9. “Jack Reacher” Series by Lee Child
10. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Series by Stieg Larsson

Remember that this list is not exhaustive, but it should give you a wide range of famous books and authors to help you in your competitive exam preparation. Happy reading and best of luck with your exams!

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