Books For UPSC Prelims General Studies

I have been asked this question again and again and bowing to popular demand i am sharing the list of books and sources from where one can prepare general studies from UPSC prelims point of view.The list by no means is comprehensive but a starting point to get you on track to clear UPSC prelims.
GS is a vast ocean ,especially for first timers as they have time constraint plus a very vague idea about what to study and from where to study.First and foremost ,one has to prepare the core areas and later on one can try to cover some of the fringe areas as well.GS is not about preparing everything under the sun (though it comes close to it)and there is a method to the GS preparation madness.

CORE AREAS
1.Current Affairs : Make daily notes from The Hindu or read current affairs updates from any monthly magazine(I was a subscriber of Competition Wizard but hardly read anything other than toppers interviews) ; Read the diary of events(supplied with The Hindu of 8th January) and mark all important happenings both national & international.
Current affairs,needless to say,is worth at least 40-45 marks in GS,so ignore it at your own peril.(kindly refer my article on current affairs for more details at www.upsc-prelims.blogspot.com)

2.History : Modern Indian History is important from both prelims and mains point of view.The best source for me was NCERT social studies books of classes 8 and 9(Contemporary India is the name of the book).Just go through the history portions and make notes,it will hardly take much time and will give you a clear idea of the chronology of events.One can expect 10-12 questions from modern indian history(freedom struggle) but be ready for surprises.
I know many people would not be satisfied with only the NCERT books ,so for those hard to please souls Spectrum's Modern Indian History booklet will be a good book to read.Even after this if one is not content then read Bipin Chandra as well ;)
For ancient and medieval India (fringe areas of GS)try to get hold of Vajiram classnotes or special supplements of Competition Wizard.From that also focus only on books and authors(eg.Mrichkatikam was written by Shudraka and Amuktamalyada was written by Krishnadeva Raya,who was the most famous King of Vijaynagar empire,which was founded by Harihara and Bukka and so on),Indus Valley sites and where particular things were found,important kingdoms and their rulers etc.I will be discussing it in more detail in a later post on Ancient & Medieval India.

3.Geography : Mostly atlas/location based questions are asked.one should not miss out on those.Read Ensemble's Geography and also get a good idea of India and world map.Location of countries,important rivers,which countries are cut by tropic of cancer/capricorn and equator etc should be seen on a regular basis from Atlas.
Read India and its states portion from Manorama Year Book.
Note down all important national parks and their locations(which state) as it is asked often in matching type questions.

4.General Science : Focus more on biology part as that is asked the most.One can follow Vajiram's class notes or special supplement of Competition Wizard.In addition one can also refer books- What,Why and How (3 very thin books) by Publication Division.Or any other source you are comfortable with.One can also look up important inventions and discoveries in Manorama Year Book.

5.Polity : Subhash Kashyap's Our Constitution and Our Parliament area must read.After that one can refer either Vajiram's class notes or Polity book by Laxmikanth.Generally conceptual questions are asked and one also needs to know important articles and amendments.For instance Article-143 is concerned with President of India seeking Supreme Court's opinion on any important issue and 73rd Amendment Act is concerned with Panchayati Raj Institutions.

6.General Mental Ability : GMA should not require any extra preparation as such,but if needed just go through previous years question papers .This will give you a good idea about the level and kind of GMA questions asked in prelims and one can then decide how much time and effort needs to be put into this section.

I look forward to your queries and feedback which you can post in comments,but please make sure you are posting your queries in my blog (www.upsc-prelims.blogspot.com)and not at some other site which might have copied my content.
All the very best !!!