300 Important Books and Authors (2023–2026 & Static GK)
CrackTarget’s exam-focused directory of 300 book–author pairs for UPSC, SSC, banking, railways and state PSC exams. Recent releases are listed first, followed by evergreen books in economics, science, history and literature. Updated November 2026. Entries in the static GK sections are not claimed to be recent releases.
2026 releases
| No. | Book | Author / Editor |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Triumph of the Indian Republic | Ram Nath Kovind |
| 2 | Tides of Time | Sudha Murty |
| 3 | The Sage Who Reimagined Hinduism | Shashi Tharoor |
| 4 | The Library Man of India | P. P. Sathyan |
| 5 | Apnapan | Shivraj Singh Chouhan |
| 6 | Taiwan Travelogue | Yang Shuang-zi |
| 7 | The Voice of Justice | S. Sivakumar (editor) |
| 8 | VIP Culture in India | Nabam Rebia and Sandeep Kumar |
| 9 | Sing, Dance and Lead | Hindol Sengupta |
| 10 | Smart Calories and Common Sense | Anoop Misra |
| 11 | A Century of Service | Tamilisai Soundararajan |
| 12 | The Second Orbit | Shubhanshu Shukla |
| 13 | When Audit Matters | Vinod Rai (editor) |
| 14 | Bringing the Cheetah Back to India | Prashant Agrawal |
| 15 | The Undocumented | Nidhi Dugar Kundalia |
| 16 | At the Speed of Flowers | Deepak Ramola |
| 17 | Once Elephants Lived Here | Geetanjali Shree |
| 18 | The Ghosts of Indian Small Towns | Ruskin Bond |
| 19 | Hometown: A Personal History of Shillong | Anjum Hasan |
| 20 | Biting Off More Than I Can Chew | Rahul Akerkar |
| 21 | Mammals of India | A. J. T. Johnsingh and P. O. Nameer |
| 22 | The Girls Club | Harnidh Kaur |
2023–2025 notable books
| No. | Book | Author / Editor |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | Source Code: My Beginnings | Bill Gates |
| 24 | The World After Gaza | Pankaj Mishra |
| 25 | Speaking with Nature | Ramachandra Guha |
| 26 | The New Icon: Savarkar and the Facts | Arun Shourie |
| 27 | Wild Fictions | Amitav Ghosh |
| 28 | The One: Cricket, My Life and More | Shikhar Dhawan |
| 29 | The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny | Kiran Desai |
| 30 | Mother Mary Comes to Me | Arundhati Roy |
| 31 | Heart Lamp | Banu Mushtaq |
| 32 | Diyaslai | Kailash Satyarthi |
| 33 | Different But Not Less | Anupam Kher |
| 34 | The CM and the Spy | A. S. Dulat |
| 35 | Bring It On | Deepa Malik |
| 36 | The Story of a Heart | Rachel Clarke |
| 37 | Raising Hare | Chloe Dalton |
| 38 | Private Revolutions | Yuan Yang |
| 39 | The Winner’s Mindset | Shane Watson |
| 40 | Witness | Sakshi Malik |
| 41 | I Have the Streets | Ravichandran Ashwin and Sidharth Monga |
| 42 | A Fly on the RBI Wall | Alpana Killawala |
| 43 | Just a Mercenary? | Duvvuri Subbarao |
| 44 | Power Within | R. Balasubramaniam |
| 45 | Ed Finds a Home | Alia Bhatt |
| 46 | India’s Nuclear Titans | Soumya Awasthi and Shrabana Barua |
| 47 | Why Bharat Matters | S. Jaishankar |
| 48 | Chhaunk | Abhijit Banerjee |
| 49 | War | Bob Woodward |
| 50 | The Unyielding Judge | Gauri Grover |
| 51 | Friends: India’s Closest Strategic Partners | Sreeram Chaulia |
| 52 | Stumped | Syed Kirmani |
| 53 | Breaking Rocks and Barriers | Sudipta Sengupta |
| 54 | Call of the Gir | Parimal Nathwani |
| 55 | How Prime Ministers Decide | Neerja Chowdhury |
| 56 | Breaking the Mould | Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba |
| 57 | An Uncommon Love | Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni |
| 58 | Welcome to Paradise | Twinkle Khanna |
| 59 | Fire on the Ganges | Radhika Iyengar |
| 60 | Western Lane | Chetna Maroo |
| 61 | Pitchside | Amrit Mathur |
| 62 | The Covenant of Water | Abraham Verghese |
| 63 | The Golden Road | William Dalrymple |
| 64 | Knife | Salman Rushdie |
| 65 | The Anxious Generation | Jonathan Haidt |
| 66 | Nexus | Yuval Noah Harari |
| 67 | The Coming Wave | Mustafa Suleyman and Michael Bhaskar |
| 68 | The Creative Act | Rick Rubin |
| 69 | The Women | Kristin Hannah |
| 70 | Orbital | Samantha Harvey |
| 71 | Prophet Song | Paul Lynch |
| 72 | The Bee Sting | Paul Murray |
| 73 | The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store | James McBride |
| 74 | Yellowface | R. F. Kuang |
| 75 | Fourth Wing | Rebecca Yarros |
| 76 | The Fraud | Zadie Smith |
| 77 | Demon Copperhead | Barbara Kingsolver |
| 78 | Lessons in Chemistry | Bonnie Garmus |
| 79 | Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow | Gabrielle Zevin |
| 80 | The Wager | David Grann |
| 81 | The Art Thief | Michael Finkel |
| 82 | Elon Musk | Walter Isaacson |
| 83 | The Woman in Me | Britney Spears |
| 84 | Spare | Prince Harry |
| 85 | Pageboy | Elliot Page |
| 86 | Poverty by America | Matthew Desmond |
| 87 | The Identity Trap | Yascha Mounk |
| 88 | Same as Ever | Morgan Housel |
| 89 | Build the Life You Want | Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey |
| 90 | Hidden Potential | Adam Grant |
| 91 | Outlive | Peter Attia and Bill Gifford |
| 92 | Ultra-Processed People | Chris van Tulleken |
| 93 | The Climate Book | Greta Thunberg |
| 94 | Not the End of the World | Hannah Ritchie |
| 95 | Material World | Ed Conway |
| 96 | Chip War | Chris Miller |
| 97 | The Fund | Rob Copeland |
| 98 | Going Infinite | Michael Lewis |
Economics, finance, science and general nonfiction
| No. | Book | Author / Editor |
|---|---|---|
| 99 | The Psychology of Money | Morgan Housel |
| 100 | The Intelligent Investor | Benjamin Graham |
| 101 | Security Analysis | Benjamin Graham and David Dodd |
| 102 | A Random Walk Down Wall Street | Burton G. Malkiel |
| 103 | The Little Book of Common Sense Investing | John C. Bogle |
| 104 | One Up on Wall Street | Peter Lynch |
| 105 | The Essays of Warren Buffett | Lawrence A. Cunningham (editor) |
| 106 | Rich Dad Poor Dad | Robert Kiyosaki |
| 107 | The Richest Man in Babylon | George S. Clason |
| 108 | The Millionaire Next Door | Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko |
| 109 | Thinking Fast and Slow | Daniel Kahneman |
| 110 | Noise | Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein |
| 111 | Nudge | Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein |
| 112 | Misbehaving | Richard H. Thaler |
| 113 | Freakonomics | Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner |
| 114 | SuperFreakonomics | Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner |
| 115 | Capital in the Twenty-First Century | Thomas Piketty |
| 116 | Capital and Ideology | Thomas Piketty |
| 117 | The Wealth of Nations | Adam Smith |
| 118 | The Theory of Moral Sentiments | Adam Smith |
| 119 | The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money | John Maynard Keynes |
| 120 | The Road to Serfdom | F. A. Hayek |
| 121 | Free to Choose | Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman |
| 122 | Capitalism and Freedom | Milton Friedman |
| 123 | Development as Freedom | Amartya Sen |
| 124 | The Argumentative Indian | Amartya Sen |
| 125 | The Idea of Justice | Amartya Sen |
| 126 | An Uncertain Glory | Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen |
| 127 | Poor Economics | Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo |
| 128 | Good Economics for Hard Times | Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo |
| 129 | Why Nations Fail | Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson |
| 130 | The Narrow Corridor | Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson |
| 131 | Power and Progress | Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson |
| 132 | The Bottom Billion | Paul Collier |
| 133 | The Future of Capitalism | Paul Collier |
| 134 | The Great Escape | Angus Deaton |
| 135 | The Undercover Economist | Tim Harford |
| 136 | The Black Swan | Nassim Nicholas Taleb |
| 137 | Antifragile | Nassim Nicholas Taleb |
| 138 | Fooled by Randomness | Nassim Nicholas Taleb |
| 139 | Sapiens | Yuval Noah Harari |
| 140 | Homo Deus | Yuval Noah Harari |
| 141 | 21 Lessons for the 21st Century | Yuval Noah Harari |
| 142 | A Brief History of Time | Stephen Hawking |
| 143 | Brief Answers to the Big Questions | Stephen Hawking |
| 144 | The Grand Design | Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow |
| 145 | A Short History of Nearly Everything | Bill Bryson |
| 146 | The Body | Bill Bryson |
| 147 | The Selfish Gene | Richard Dawkins |
| 148 | The Blind Watchmaker | Richard Dawkins |
| 149 | The Origin of Species | Charles Darwin |
| 150 | The Descent of Man | Charles Darwin |
| 151 | Silent Spring | Rachel Carson |
| 152 | The Sixth Extinction | Elizabeth Kolbert |
| 153 | The Uninhabitable Earth | David Wallace-Wells |
| 154 | The Hidden Life of Trees | Peter Wohlleben |
| 155 | The Gene | Siddhartha Mukherjee |
| 156 | The Emperor of All Maladies | Siddhartha Mukherjee |
| 157 | The Song of the Cell | Siddhartha Mukherjee |
| 158 | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks | Rebecca Skloot |
| 159 | The Double Helix | James D. Watson |
| 160 | Cosmos | Carl Sagan |
| 161 | Pale Blue Dot | Carl Sagan |
| 162 | The Demon-Haunted World | Carl Sagan |
| 163 | Astrophysics for People in a Hurry | Neil deGrasse Tyson |
| 164 | The Elegant Universe | Brian Greene |
| 165 | The Fabric of the Cosmos | Brian Greene |
| 166 | The Fabric of Reality | David Deutsch |
| 167 | The Beginning of Infinity | David Deutsch |
| 168 | Life 3.0 | Max Tegmark |
| 169 | Superintelligence | Nick Bostrom |
| 170 | Human Compatible | Stuart Russell |
| 171 | Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach | Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig |
| 172 | The Age of AI | Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher |
| 173 | The Fourth Industrial Revolution | Klaus Schwab |
| 174 | The World Is Flat | Thomas L. Friedman |
| 175 | The Lexus and the Olive Tree | Thomas L. Friedman |
| 176 | Hot Flat and Crowded | Thomas L. Friedman |
| 177 | Atomic Habits | James Clear |
| 178 | Deep Work | Cal Newport |
| 179 | Slow Productivity | Cal Newport |
| 180 | Digital Minimalism | Cal Newport |
| 181 | Think Again | Adam Grant |
| 182 | The Righteous Mind | Jonathan Haidt |
| 183 | The Big Short | Michael Lewis |
| 184 | Flash Boys | Michael Lewis |
| 185 | The Fifth Risk | Michael Lewis |
| 186 | The Code Breaker | Walter Isaacson |
| 187 | The Innovators | Walter Isaacson |
| 188 | Steve Jobs | Walter Isaacson |
| 189 | Einstein: His Life and Universe | Walter Isaacson |
| 190 | The Diary of a CEO | Steven Bartlett |
| 191 | The 5 AM Club | Robin Sharma |
| 192 | The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari | Robin Sharma |
| 193 | Ikigai | Héctor García and Francesc Miralles |
| 194 | The Courage to Be Disliked | Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga |
| 195 | The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck | Mark Manson |
| 196 | The Almanack of Naval Ravikant | Eric Jorgenson |
Indian history, literature and political writing
| No. | Book | Author / Editor |
|---|---|---|
| 197 | The Discovery of India | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| 198 | Glimpses of World History | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| 199 | An Autobiography | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| 200 | The Story of My Experiments with Truth | Mahatma Gandhi |
| 201 | Hind Swaraj | Mahatma Gandhi |
| 202 | India of My Dreams | Mahatma Gandhi |
| 203 | Wings of Fire | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and Arun Tiwari |
| 204 | Ignited Minds | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam |
| 205 | India 2020 | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and Y. S. Rajan |
| 206 | My Journey | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam |
| 207 | Turning Points | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam |
| 208 | The Luminous Sparks | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam |
| 209 | The Life Divine | Sri Aurobindo |
| 210 | Savitri | Sri Aurobindo |
| 211 | Gitanjali | Rabindranath Tagore |
| 212 | Gora | Rabindranath Tagore |
| 213 | The Home and the World | Rabindranath Tagore |
| 214 | The Post Office | Rabindranath Tagore |
| 215 | Anandamath | Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay |
| 216 | Durgeshnandini | Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay |
| 217 | Kapalkundala | Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay |
| 218 | Godan | Munshi Premchand |
| 219 | Gaban | Munshi Premchand |
| 220 | Nirmala | Munshi Premchand |
| 221 | Sevasadan | Munshi Premchand |
| 222 | Rangbhoomi | Munshi Premchand |
| 223 | Karmabhoomi | Munshi Premchand |
| 224 | Madhushala | Harivansh Rai Bachchan |
| 225 | Rashmirathi | Ramdhari Singh Dinkar |
| 226 | Kurukshetra | Ramdhari Singh Dinkar |
| 227 | Urvashi | Ramdhari Singh Dinkar |
| 228 | Kamayani | Jaishankar Prasad |
| 229 | Saket | Maithili Sharan Gupt |
| 230 | Bharat Bharati | Maithili Sharan Gupt |
| 231 | Yama | Mahadevi Varma |
| 232 | Maila Anchal | Phanishwar Nath Renu |
| 233 | Raag Darbari | Shrilal Shukla |
| 234 | Tamas | Bhisham Sahni |
| 235 | Train to Pakistan | Khushwant Singh |
| 236 | A History of the Sikhs | Khushwant Singh |
| 237 | The God of Small Things | Arundhati Roy |
| 238 | The Ministry of Utmost Happiness | Arundhati Roy |
| 239 | Midnight’s Children | Salman Rushdie |
| 240 | The Satanic Verses | Salman Rushdie |
| 241 | Shame | Salman Rushdie |
| 242 | The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga |
| 243 | Last Man in Tower | Aravind Adiga |
| 244 | The Inheritance of Loss | Kiran Desai |
| 245 | The Namesake | Jhumpa Lahiri |
| 246 | Interpreter of Maladies | Jhumpa Lahiri |
| 247 | The Lowland | Jhumpa Lahiri |
| 248 | The Palace of Illusions | Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni |
| 249 | The Forest of Enchantments | Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni |
| 250 | The Last Queen | Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni |
| 251 | The Immortals of Meluha | Amish Tripathi |
| 252 | The Secret of the Nagas | Amish Tripathi |
| 253 | The Oath of the Vayuputras | Amish Tripathi |
| 254 | Scion of Ikshvaku | Amish Tripathi |
| 255 | Sita: Warrior of Mithila | Amish Tripathi |
| 256 | The Shadow Lines | Amitav Ghosh |
| 257 | The Glass Palace | Amitav Ghosh |
| 258 | Sea of Poppies | Amitav Ghosh |
| 259 | River of Smoke | Amitav Ghosh |
| 260 | Flood of Fire | Amitav Ghosh |
| 261 | The Hungry Tide | Amitav Ghosh |
| 262 | The Great Derangement | Amitav Ghosh |
| 263 | The Nutmeg’s Curse | Amitav Ghosh |
| 264 | Tomb of Sand | Geetanjali Shree |
| 265 | The Blue Umbrella | Ruskin Bond |
| 266 | The Room on the Roof | Ruskin Bond |
| 267 | A Flight of Pigeons | Ruskin Bond |
| 268 | The Guide | R. K. Narayan |
| 269 | Malgudi Days | R. K. Narayan |
| 270 | Swami and Friends | R. K. Narayan |
| 271 | The English Teacher | R. K. Narayan |
| 272 | Kanthapura | Raja Rao |
| 273 | Untouchable | Mulk Raj Anand |
| 274 | Coolie | Mulk Raj Anand |
| 275 | A Suitable Boy | Vikram Seth |
| 276 | An Equal Music | Vikram Seth |
| 277 | The Great Indian Novel | Shashi Tharoor |
| 278 | An Era of Darkness | Shashi Tharoor |
| 279 | The Paradoxical Prime Minister | Shashi Tharoor |
| 280 | Pax Indica | Shashi Tharoor |
| 281 | India After Gandhi | Ramachandra Guha |
| 282 | Gandhi Before India | Ramachandra Guha |
| 283 | Makers of Modern India | Ramachandra Guha |
| 284 | The India Way | S. Jaishankar |
| 285 | The Accidental Prime Minister | Sanjaya Baru |
| 286 | The Coalition Years | Pranab Mukherjee |
| 287 | The Turbulent Years | Pranab Mukherjee |
| 288 | The Dramatic Decade | Pranab Mukherjee |
| 289 | The Presidential Years | Pranab Mukherjee |
| 290 | The Insider | P. V. Narasimha Rao |
| 291 | Long Walk to Freedom | Nelson Mandela |
| 292 | I Am Malala | Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb |
| 293 | The Diary of a Young Girl | Anne Frank |
| 294 | The Story of My Life | Helen Keller |
| 295 | Becoming | Michelle Obama |
| 296 | A Promised Land | Barack Obama |
| 297 | Born a Crime | Trevor Noah |
| 298 | Educated | Tara Westover |
| No. | Book | Author |
|---|---|---|
| 299 | Arthashastra | Kautilya (Chanakya) |
| 300 | Indica | Megasthenes |
How to revise books and authors for competitive exams
Start with 2026 releases, then revise 2025 and 2024, followed by the evergreen classics. Memorise each book’s title and writer in both directions. Distinguish editors, translators and co-authors from the principal author. Practise 20 pairs daily and revisit difficult names every third day. For fresh updates, read CrackTarget Current Affairs. Release dates and spellings can vary by edition and translation; consult publisher records when exact bibliographic details matter.
Comments
One response to “300 Important Books and Authors 2026 | Latest Releases & Static GK”
“The Foreigner” remains a significant contribution to Indian English fiction, offering a nuanced portrayal of alienation and self-discovery. Arun Joshi’s exploration of existential dilemmas continues to resonate with contemporary readers. The novel ultimately suggests that while detachment may shield individuals from pain, it also deprives them of the richness of human experience, making engagement and responsibility essential to a meaningful life. https://www.indianetzone.com/the_foreigner_arun_joshi