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Best Geography Optional Booklist for UPSC IAS

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.

It is updation, enrichment and deeper conceptual clarity that requires more books and coverage of current affairs based questions. Sincerely managing GS goes a long way in helping geography too.

Basic books

  1. NCERT-XI & XII

  2. Made Simple Series by Rupa Publication-Vol-I & II

  3. A certificate course in geography by Goh Cheng Leong

Reference Books

  1. 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

    1. Geomorphology-By Savindra Singh

    2. Oceanography- By Savindra Singh

    3. Climatology- By Savindra Singh

    4. Environment Geography-By Savindra Singh

    5. Biogeography- By Savindra Singh

  1. Indian Geography by D R Khullar

  2. Human Geography by Majid Hussain

  3. Models and theories by Majid Hussain

  4. Geographical thought by Dixit

  5. Geographical thought by Sudipta Adhikary ( A good supplement for Thought topics)

  6. 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.

  7. 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:

  1. Yojna

  2. Kurushektra

  3. Greagraphy and You

  4. NITI Aayog reports (particularly, those on Agriculture, Infra, Regional development, Rural development etc)

  5. Select UN docs on Population, development & Env. (UNDP is most helpful)