List – Best Geography Books for UPSC (mains and prelims)

UPSC has always been a fascinating career choice for the Indian youths and it has been there in spite of all other career options laying wide open in front of them – engineering, management, and the recently dawned digital marketing and entrepreneurship. Why? Because UPSC has a charm about it. UPSC, however fascinating and charming it be, requires a lot of hard work, labour, courageous confidence and belief in oneself; and after all that, one needs to have the very best of books which can actually guide them to success. Today, I will be telling the UPSC aspirants about the very best of geography books which can ensure that the Geography (mains and prelims) is covered when it counts in the IAS exam. Don’t forget to comment and ask if you have any questions.

NCERT Books – VIII to XII: People who have cleared IAS often advise the same. And to a great extent, they are right as well. Having read the NCERT books make you self-aware of the basics and the knowledge you revise will certainly help you in the earlier stages of the UPSC exams. You can download these books free from various resources available on the internet.

Basic Physical Geography by K. Siddhartha: This is, perhaps, the best book out there in the book market which does the job which suits not only the university students but the IAS aspirants alike. The book employs theories, tables, diagrams, and various other means to extend the content to the readers. The contents of the book are based on the revised and most recent curriculum of the leading universities in India. It will help the university and college students who have to study physical geography. Moreover, the book is very popular among the aspirants of the UPSC and the name of the author, K. Siddhartha is more than enough. I also recommend this book for the aspirants of UPSC who are thinking of doing something great in the prelims as well as mains exams.

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Geography Through Maps by K. Siddhartha: This is yet another book which is very popular among the students of geography as well as the UPSC aspirants. The book focuses on geographical studies through the help of maps, political and physical. You will, as an IAS aspirant, get the details of all the continents through their maps and then a detailed study of India through the maps. This book will enable the students to answer the questions from the GS part as well as the mains part. It can also be used by the students preparing for other commission exams in any other state of India. The best part of this book is that it also comes in a Hindi version. It will be useful for those students who opt for Hindi-medium answering in the IAS exams.

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Any High-Quality Atlas: Having an atlas always helps geography students, isn’t it? Do keep one HD print atlas book with you – preferably Oxford or any other reputed publisher’s book. It will enable you to consult the map in large and quality print whenever needed. You should best buy this book from offline stores because you need to make sure that maps are high-quality print, colour and accurate.

Economic Geography by K. Siddhartha: This is another stunning book by K. Siddhartha in his Geography series. Published by Kitab Mahal, all the books in geography series by K. Siddhartha come with extensively useful content and a unique way of presentation which works the best for the UPSC students because the cannot waste so much time choosing the best book. Economic Geography will help them understand the economic value of the various geographical pieces of land in the world which are important enough to be covered.

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Always have the alternatives and additional books other than the ones advised. I have advised on the basis of my understanding of the K. Siddhartha geography series and you can certainly have those books. However, do have one or two extra books always for an alternate view and various perspectives on the topics of importance so that you understand clearer and better.

All the best aspirants! See you in some of the next posts!

by Rupesh for Featured Books