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Best Geography Optional Booklist for UPSC IAS

Books for Geography Optional in UPSC CSE - Vajirao & Reddy

When you think about Geography Optional it is highly important that you understand the Nature of the UPSC IAS Exam and the UPSC Previous Year Geography Question papers. After that, we must understand the booklist for UPSC Geography Optional.

This article covers the Best Geography Optional booklist for UPSC IAS Exam which shall be your Friend, Philosopher, and Guide during your UPSC Journey. There are actually 8 books that cover almost 80-85% of the Geography Optional Syllabus for UPSC.

Which books to refer to for Geography Optional?

There are actually 8 books that cover almost 80-85% of the UPSC 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)