Books for Geography Optional in UPSC CSE
Which books to refer to for Geography Optional ?
There are actually 8 books that cover almost 80-85% of the syllabus.
Basic books
- NCERT-XI & XII
- Made Simple Series by Rupa Publication-Vol-I & II
- A certificate course in geography by Goh Cheng Leong
Reference Books
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Physical Geography- By Savindra Singh (If one wants to avoid specialised books for Physical Geography syllabus. There are 5 specialised books by Savindra Singh have certain specific chapters which are not covered through the above book. Coverage of above Physical Geography text book covers almost 80% of the physical geography syllabus). For the other topics of the Physical geography syllabus, one has to refer to about 2-3 chapters from each of the below books: One can take photocopies of the select chapters from libraries and study rather than buying these books
- Geomorphology-By Savindra Singh
- Oceanography- By Savindra Singh
- Climatology- By Savindra Singh
- Environment Geography-By Savindra Singh
- Biogeography- By Savindra Singh
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Indian Geography by D R Khulla
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Human Geography by Majid Hussain
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Models and theories by Majid Hussain
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Geographical thought by Dixit
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Geographical thought by Sudipta Adhikary ( A good supplement for Thought topics)
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NCERT class X text book, (Old Edition) is good for Economic Geography Coverage. It will also help GS geography topics like- World Industries, World Resources distribution and trade.
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Settlement Geography by K Siddhartha
Other References:
Like in all other subjects, and in GS, students must read up various magazines and current affairs based enrichment. Some of the sources one can be regular with are:
- Yojna
- Kurushektra
- Greagraphy and You
- NITI Aayog reports (particularly, those on Agriculture, Infra, Regional development, Rural development etc)
- Select UN docs on Population, development & Env. (UNDP is most helpful)