India

Reading List

FIELD GUIDES

Birds of India

Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp & Tim Inskipp

Thoroughly revised, with 73 new plates and many others updated or repainted, the second edition of the masterful Birds of India now features all maps and text opposite the plates for quicker and easier reference.

India Wildlife, A Folding Pocket Guide to Familiar Animals

James Kavanagh

A folding wildlife guide designed for quick reference in the field. It features more than 140 creatures often seen in India (from tigers and lions to flying lizards) with full-color images and text. Part of the great Pocket Naturalist series.

A Naturalist's Guide to the Birds of India, Including Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan

Bikram Grewal

A handy field guide to 280 bird species common to the Indian subcontinent. In beautiful John Beaufoy style, the guide's colorful and high-quality photographs are accompanied by detailed species descriptions, size distribution, preferred habitats and nomenclature.

India Birds

James Kavanagh

A folding wildlife guide designed for quick reference in the field. With full-color images and text, it features more than 100 birds often-seen in India. 

MAPS

India Adventure Map

National Geographic Society

The most detailed shaded relief map (at a scale of 1:2,100,000) of India available.

India Northwest Adventure Map

National Geographic Maps

A double-sided full-color map of Northwest India at a scale of 1:1,400,000 with good shaded relief, topographic detail, roads, waterways and basic travel information. Printed on waterproof, tear-resistant paper. Two sides. 20 x 31 inches.

GUIDEBOOKS

Eyewitness Guide India

Eyewitness Guides

A handsome, beautifully illustrated guide to India. It features color photographs, history and plenty of background information.

National Geographic India

Louise Nicholson

Veteran guidebook author Louise Nicholson teamed up with National Geographic photographers for this profusely illustrated travel guide.

Culture Smart! India

Becky Stephen

A concise, well-illustrated guide to both social and business customs in India. 

Eyewitness Guide Delhi, Agra and Jaipur

Anuradha Chaturvedi

With chapters on Taj Mahal, Amber Fort Palace, Keoladeo Ghana National Park, Red Fort and dozens of other highlights for the traveler, this compact, gorgeously illustrated guide to Delhi and its environs features 900 color photographs, maps and site plans. 

Insight Guide India

Insight Guides

An illustrated overview of India, with essays on its attractions, history, nature and culture. Includes introductions to the major temples, forts and wildlife sites and plenty of color photos and maps.

Lonely Planet India Phrasebook

Omkar Koul

A handy, palm-sized guide to pronunciation, basic grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler. 

NATURAL HISTORY

Tiger, Soul of India

Valmik Thapar

This lavish tribute features 250 color photographs, examples of art over the ages and engaging essays by tiger wallah Thapar, who has spent 30 years observing tigers.

Tigers in Red Weather, A Quest to See the Last Wild Tigers

Ruth Padel

"You cannot plan to see a tiger," writes Ruth Padel. "It is like planning to fall in love." Her lyrical exploration of the world of the tiger takes her across 11 countries in two years. Padel is a poet by trade and the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin.

Wonders of the Indian Wilderness

Erach Bharucha

With 2,000 full-color illustrations, this sumptuous celebration of India's biodiversity is visually stunning. A deluxe volume with a slipcase. 

HISTORY & CULTURE

India

Stanley Wolpert

Wolpert's reflections on India -- its religion and philosophy, its art, culture and politics -- make for a literate, succinct primer.

City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi

William Dalrymple

Dalrymple infectiously interweaves his own experiences over a year in Delhi with its art, architecture, history and literature.

Malgudi Days

R. K. Narayan

Wonderful tales from one of India's foremost writers about a fictional South Indian town populated by quirky characters whose unique approaches to tradition and modernity are the stuff of great short stories.

Curry, A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors

Lizzie Collingham

This cultural history with recipes is appetizingly organized as a menu (biryani, vindaloo, chai, etc.). Collingham explores the origins and spread of Indian food and the interplay between Muslim, Hindu, Portuguese and British traditions on the subcontinent.

A Free Man

Aman Sethi

Sethi conjures Mohammed Ashraf and his indelible group of day laborer friends in the Old Delhi Railway Station in this searing portrait of life -- and injustice -- in contemporary India.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Katherine Boo

A Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and writer at The New Yorker, Boo turns her four years among the people of a Mumbai slum into an absorbing tale of the clash of India, new and old, prosperous and disenfranchised.

In Spite of the Gods

Edward Luce

Luce tackles the challenges and reality of the world's largest democracy with insight and balance in this portrait of a nation in transition.

India Becoming

Akash Kapur

Kapur returns to the country of his birth for this revealing and rich tapestry of contemporary India as told through the lives of ordinary people.

India, A Sacred Geography

Diana L. Eck

Professor of comparative religion and Indian studies at Harvard, Diana Eck turns her interest in temples and places of pilgrimage into a celebration of the diversity of popular religious traditions in India in this richly rewarding travelogue.

India, A Short History

Andrew Robinson

Robinson's inviting introduction to India chronicles the rise and fall of the India's kingdoms and the unified nation's eventual economic decline, which led to the British subjugation of the Mughal Empire in the mid-19th century.

May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons, A Journey Among the Women of India

Elisabeth Bumiller

A wonderfully written and fascinating portrayal of Indian women from Bollywood stars to Indira Gandhi to prostitutes. It's an insightful portrait of the country as seen through the eyes of its women.

Midnight's Descendants, A History of South Asia Since Partition

John Keay

An illuminating history of South Asian countries India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, their interconnectedness and present challenges.

Rogue Elephant, Harnessing the Power of India's Unruly Democracy

Simon Denyer

An astute examination of contemporary Indian politics and economics. Simon Denyer, former Indian bureau chief for the Washington Post, writes on the crisis of confidence in the world's largest democracy.

What the Buddha Taught

Walpola Sri Rahula

A classic account of Theravada Buddhism by a respected monk and scholar from Sri Lanka. Provides translations from original texts with explanations for Western readers. A good foundation for any visitor to Southeast Asia.

Taj Mahal

M.C. Joshi, Jean-Louis Nou & Amina Okada

This lavish portrait features 158 full-color photographs (including four magnificent foldout panels) by the extraordinary Jean-Louis Nou. With grand exterior views, filigreed inscriptions and bejeweled floral mosaics.

Gandhi, An Autobiography, or the Story of My Experiments with Truth

Mohandas K. Gandhi

There is no substitute for reading Gandhi in his own simple, direct prose. A highly recommended glimpse into the personality and life of this remarkable figure.