Important Books & Authors Short Notes for Competitive Exams

Important Books & Authors – Short Notes  Exam-Oriented

Books and authors are among the most repeatedly asked static GK topics in all competitive exams. Questions may be asked in the format:

• “Who is the author of the book ___?”

• “Which book is written by ___?”

• “Match the following (Books–Authors).”

• “Autobiography/Biography of ___?”

• “Book related to Indian Freedom Movement?”

• “Recently released books?”

This short note compiles classical works, modern literature, autobiographies, Indian authors, international authors, award-winning books, government-related works, and exam-important one-liners.

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1. Classical & Historical Books (Very Important)

Indian Classical Literature

• Mahabharata – Ved Vyasa

• Ramayana – Valmiki

• Meghaduta, Raghuvamsa – Kalidasa

• Arthashastra – Chanakya/Kautilya

• Manusmriti – Manu

• Panchatantra – Vishnu Sharma

• Gitanjali – Rabindranath Tagore (Nobel Prize 1913)

• Akbarnama, Ain-i-Akbari – Abul Fazl

• Shah Nama – Firdausi

• Tuzuk-i-Baburi (Baburnama) – Babur

• Humayunama – Gulbadan Begum

• Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi – Ziauddin Barani

Mughal & Medieval Texts

• Ain-i-Akbari – Abul Fazl

• Tabaqat-i-Nasiri – Minhaj-i-Siraj

• Prithviraj Raso – Chand Bardai

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2. Freedom Movement & Nationalism Books

These are frequently asked in SSC, UPSC prelims, and state exams.

• Hind Swaraj – Mahatma Gandhi

• My Experiments With Truth – Mahatma Gandhi

• Discovery of India – Jawaharlal Nehru

• Glimpses of World History – Jawaharlal Nehru

• Anandmath – Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

• India Wins Freedom – Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

• Toward Freedom – Jawaharlal Nehru

• What Congress & Gandhi Have Done to Untouchables – B.R. Ambedkar

• Annihilation of Caste – B.R. Ambedkar

• The Golden Thread – J.N. Dixit

• The Indian Struggle – Subhash Chandra Bose

• Why I Am an Atheist – Bhagat Singh

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3. Autobiographies & Biographies

A high-priority topic for SSC, Bank, and UPSC.

Famous Autobiographies

• Wings of Fire – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

• Playing It My Way – Sachin Tendulkar

• My Life, My Mission – Baba Ramdev

• The Race of My Life – Milkha Singh

• My Country, My Life – L.K. Advani

• I Am Malala – Malala Yousafzai

• Long Walk to Freedom – Nelson Mandela

• The Story of My Life – Helen Keller

• True Confidence – Suresh Raina (with Bharat Sundaresan)

• Ace Against Odds – Sania Mirza

• Unfinished – Priyanka Chopra Jonas

• Open – Andre Agassi

Important Biographies

• A Life in Diplomacy – M.K. Rasgotra

• A.P.J. Abdul Kalam: A Life – Arun Tiwari

• Sardar Patel: Life & Work – Raghuveer Choudhary

• The Man Who Knew Infinity – Robert Kanigel (Biography of Ramanujan)

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4. Indian English Literature

Important Indian English Novelists & Books

• Train to Pakistan – Khushwant Singh

• The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy (Booker Prize)

• Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

• The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga (Booker Prize)

• A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

• The Guide – R.K. Narayan

• Malgudi Days – R.K. Narayan

• Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri (Pulitzer Prize)

• Clear Light of Day – Anita Desai

• In Custody – Anita Desai

• The Palace of Illusions – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

• The Immortals of Meluha – Amish Tripathi

• The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho (Brazilian but frequently asked)

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5. International Authors & Famous Works

World Classics

• War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

• Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

• The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky

• Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky

• The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

• Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth – William Shakespeare

• Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

• Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë

• Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes

Modern Literature

• A Brief History of Time – Stephen Hawking

• Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari

• The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

• To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

• Harry Potter Series – J.K. Rowling

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6. Government, Economy, & Political Books

Indian Government & Politics

• The Constitution of India – B.R. Ambedkar (chief architect)

• India 2020 – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

• A Better India, A Better World – N.R. Narayana Murthy

• The Accidental Prime Minister – Sanjaya Baru

• The Coalition Years – Pranab Mukherjee

• The Dramatic Decade – Pranab Mukherjee

• The Third Pillar – Raghuram Rajan

• I Do What I Do – Raghuram Rajan

Economics & Business

• The Wealth of Nations – Adam Smith

• Capital – Karl Marx

• An Inquiry into Poverty – Amartya Sen

• The World is Flat – Thomas L. Friedman

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7. Books on Science, Technology & Environment

• Silent Spring – Rachel Carson

• Origin of Species – Charles Darwin

• Cosmos – Carl Sagan

• The Selfish Gene – Richard Dawkins

• Brief Answers to the Big Questions – Stephen Hawking

• Turning Points – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

• Indomitable Spirit – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

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8. Sports Books (Frequently Asked)

• Playing It My Way – Sachin Tendulkar

• The Test of My Life – Yuvraj Singh

• 281 and Beyond – V.V.S. Laxman

• No Spin – Shane Warne

• The Greatest – Muhammad Ali

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9. Recently Published / Trending Books

(These are important for SSC CGL, CHSL, Bank, and state exams since they ask current-year books.)

• The India Way – S. Jaishankar

• A Promised Land – Barack Obama

• Know Your Worth – Radhika Gupta

• Modi @ 20 – Various Authors

• Why Bharat Matters – S. Jaishankar

• The Maverick Effect – Harish Mehta

• The Chip War – Chris Miller

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10. Children’s Literature

• The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling

• Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

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11. Award-Winning Books (Booker, Pulitzer, Gyanpeeth, Sahitya Akademi)

Booker Prize Books

• Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

• The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy

• The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga

• Life of Pi – Yann Martel

Pulitzer Prize Books

• Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri

• All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr

Jnanpith Award Authors (India)

• G. Sankara Kurup – Malayalam

• U. R. Ananthamurthy – Kannada

• Amitav Ghosh – English

• Raghuveer Chaudhari – Gujarati

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12. Misc & Very Frequently Asked Books

• The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie

• Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift

• Animal Farm, 1984 – George Orwell

• The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

• The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand

• The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari – Robin Sharma

• Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki

• The Power of Your Subconscious Mind – Joseph Murphy

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13. One-Liners for Exam Revision (Super Important)

• Who wrote “Gitanjali”? → Rabindranath Tagore

• Booker-winning novel by Arundhati Roy? → The God of Small Things

• Autobiography of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam? → Wings of Fire

• Author of “Discovery of India”? → Jawaharlal Nehru

• ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ is autobiography of? → Nelson Mandela

• “Train to Pakistan” author? → Khushwant Singh

• “India 2020” written by? → A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

• “Anandmath” author? → Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

• “Playing It My Way” is about? → Sachin Tendulkar

• “Sapiens” written by? → Yuval Noah Harari