The Ultimate List of +61 Books To Read Before Traveling To India

As I was reading Shantaram, the idea of taking a trip to India started to form in my mind. When a friend announced he was having a retreat, it solidified. I was off to India and looking for inspiration…

What books should you read before traveling to India? The most talked about books about India are: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, and My Experiments with Truth by M.K. Gandhi.

Below I’ve listed +50 more based on different interests…

As I settled into India, I’ve made an ultimate list of the books to read as I live and travel here. I thought this may be helpful to you if you’re looking for inspiration and an introduction to Indian culture.

To break the books down, I’ve classified them by interest so you can choose the 5 to 10 books that most interest you… unless you’re weird like me and want to spend a year reading 60 books about India 🤓:

• Travel Adventures: Mostly non-fiction stories of foreigners and Indians traveling through India.
• History Buff: If you like understanding the facts about India – its people and places.
• Heart Throbs: You like emotive language and stories about love, which are mostly focused on the feelings of the characters.
• Literary Snobs: You like to read the classics and understand what’s generally considered great.
• Spiritual Seekers: You want enlightenment and truth, and will read any book to get it.
• Hipsters: You want to read the rarely-read books for a unique perspective.
• Entrepreneurs and Digital Nomads: You want the books that will give you insight into your business.

I’ve also rated each title based on its genre, popularity and online rankings.

• Popularity: Between 1 and 5 nerd faces 🤓
• Online Rankings: Between 1 and 5 stars ⭐️

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

***Best-Sellers***

If you’re going to India and you call yourself a reader, you should add these to your list. Or don’t, you rebel 😏

1) Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

• Genre: Fiction, Adventure, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓 🤓 🤓 🤓 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book has inspired many travelers like myself to head to India. Not only does it chronicle the tale of a pretty inspiring Australian ex-convict living in the slums of Mumbai, but it also is the type of novel you’ll stay up late reading “just one more page.”

It has love, spiritual seeking, and an epic tale of a prison break straight over the front wall.

Whether you’re looking for a tale of enlightenment, a travel story, a romance novel, or a thriller about a convict on the run… this is a great read.

The colorful backdrop of Mumbai’s slums puts it over the top with its descriptions of rats as big as cats, the inner workings of the Indian mob, and the epic wrestling match that is getting on a train in the Indian standing-room-only class.

Oh, and it’s based on a true story.

2) Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

• Genre: Fiction, Magical Realism, Fantasy
• Popularity: 🤓 🤓 🤓 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Before I learned this story, I was pretty clueless about most of the details of Indian history (and now I’m slightly less clueless!)

The genius of this story is the way it tells the story of India, through a fantastical charismatic story of a boy with a cucumber-looking nose.

You’ll follow Saleem Sinai, born on midnight the day India itself was born. He’s one of 1001 children who were born at the same time as Mother India, and this creates a special privilege and curse and… a super weird bond between them.

If you’re only going to read 5 books about India, this should be one. There’s also a movie (AND here are 50 movies about trips to India).

3) A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Popularity: 🤓 🤓 🤓 🤓 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Some people think of his work as an Indian Charles Dickens, because he takes on such huge sweeping subject matter like the corruption and tragedy and how to rise above.

It’s set in 1975, as India goes through a time of crisis and follows four unrelated characters as they cramp together in a small apartment to weather the horrors of the storm around them.

You’ll be asking, Was India really like this? And is it still? Eek!

4) White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

• Genre: Fiction, Modern, Mystery, Crime
• Popularity: 🤓 🤓 🤓 🤓 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is funny. It’s tragic but never loses its sense of humor, which in many ways is like India… the unending traffic… the lines at a grocery store… the many people approaching you on the street asking for money… it can be a bit grim sometimes.

But then your chai wallah smiles as they give you your chai or your gardener tells you about the coming religious celebrations in town or a cute kid on the street says hello with a beaming smile.

The book is a mystery, with an interesting narrator and setup.

Great inspirational reading for entrepreneurs and digital nomads 👍👍

Other books I want to read by Aravind Adiga:

• Selection Day [Recently adapted into a Netflix show]: It’s about cricket, haha.
• Between the Assassinations: It’s a about a city on the Bay of Bengal and the period after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, yet before her son was killed.
• Last Man in Town: A Mumbai man refuses to leave his home in the slums as property developers move in.

5) A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

• Genre: Historical Fiction, Modern, Mystery, Crime
• Popularity: 🤓 🤓 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Similar to Midnight’s Children, it’s set in India just after Independence.

It follows four families over a period of 18 months. It’s fun because it takes you into the love life of Indians.

Rupa Mehra is trying to arrange a marriage with her young daughter Lata to a “suitable boy.”

6) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

• Genre: Historical Fiction, Modern
• Popularity: 🤓 🤓 🤓 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Arundhati Roy has been compared to Dickens and Faulkner. She has her own way of explaining this in a unique emotive voice. This one’s about a family drama, people falling in love with people they shouldn’t, and political struggles.

It’s a novel pointing to the age-old question as the back of the novel states, “Who should be loved and how. And how much.”

7) Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓 🤓 🤓 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

At this point, you probably know the story… unless you’ve been living in an ashram in India for years 🙂

It’s Elizabeth Gilbert’s autobiography about handling her mid-life crisis and divorce by Eating in Italy, Praying in India, and Loving in Indonesia.

Some people will criticize the India sections, but I think it’s true to my experiences in an ashram and her voice and writing is super accessible.

8) Q & A by Vikas Swarup

• Genre: Fiction, Modern
• Popularity: 🤓 🤓 🤓 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is the novel that inspired Slumdog Millionaire. This is the movie that my family thinks is what India is, haha. India is similar, yet it’s also much more obviously.

I like films, and this one’s on my list because I like to compare the book with the movie.

9) The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

• Genre: Fiction, Modern
• Popularity: 🤓 🤓 🤓 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This novel is also has a movie. It’s about an Indian professor who moves to the US, then heads back to India to get married and brings his bride to the USA.

We then follow his son, the Namesake, and the family as they grow. This one taught me a lot about Indian values and love.

10) Life of Pi by Yann Martel

• Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure
• Popularity: 🤓 🤓 🤓 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A kid from Pondicherry survives his ship sinking only to get stuck on a raft with a live and not-so-happy Bengal Tiger. Talk about luck.

If you visit Pondicherry, you can see some places that are depicted in the movie.

***Travel Adventures***

I have always loved non-fiction travel adventure books, maybe that’s why I’m spending so much time writing this blog, haha.

Check out these stories of great writers as they go on journeys and adventures and odysseys into India.

11) A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
• Popularity: 🤓 🤓 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you’ve watched the 2016 film, Lion, this is the nonfiction book that inspired the movie.

A boy gets on a train and wakes up in a new place. He only knows his mom as “ma” and he doesn’t pronounce his town right, so no one knows where he is from.

He eventually gets on Google Earth and looks for the one image he can remember of his train station… a water tower.

It’s a tear-jerker 😢

12) Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sarah Macdonald’s funny trip through India is often near the top of travel books about India.

She backpacked in India when she was younger and HATED it, haha. But after more than 10 years, her partner had to move back to India… so that’s when our story begins.

She questions, how can she find peace in India when it’s sooo crazy?

13) All Roads Lead to Ganga by Ruskin Bond

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓  
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A little-known travelogue about a man’s journey along the Ganges River in the Himalayas. There’s also a lot to learn about the river and India from the author’s research.

He writes similar to Jim Corbett, describing more than just the places and people, but also how he feels about them.

14) Around India in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Monisha is from the UK, but moved to India with her family in the 90s. However, she and her family had a tough run with rats eating their soap and a neighbor who was a touch creepy.

They moved back to the UK but 20 years later, Monisha is back in India and wants to explore in the style of Jules Verne… therefore, she heads ~25000 miles around India on trains to learn more about the country she lost touch with.

15) Never Mind the Bullocks: One Girl’s 10,000 km Adventure around India in the World’s Cheapest Car by Vanessa Able

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️

This is a little-known travel adventure if you want to see a side of India, that many tourists will never hear about.

Take a trip in a Tata Nano (super tiny car) and brave the Indian highways and avoid hitting the bullocks, haha.

She falls in love with a mathematician named Thor, encounters terrible drivers and barely escapes with her life.

16) A Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one isn’t that popular but it gets great reviews online.

If you’re dreaming about moving to India and seeking spiritual enlightenment, this one’s for you.

Paul does just that and lives with the sadhus, gurus, mystics, yogis and eventually finds enlightened master Sri Ramana Maharishi…

If you’re looking for your guru, then this is the story for you.

17) Chasing the Monsoon by Alexander Frater

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The monsoon season is an oddity that I was scratching my head above… “wait, so it rains for like days and days and days on end?”

Alexander is basically a storm chaser, following the monsoon season through villages and cities and across countries… like any good book he finds love surprisingly along the way.

18) Slowly Down the Ganges by Eric Newby

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

After watching the film, The River, by the famed French director Jean Renoir, I’m sort of obsessed with living on a houseboat on an Indian river. Just cruising along and doing my writing… if only I could get strong wifi!

That’s why I want to read this book.

Eric and his wife, set off on an almost 2000 km adventure on a boat on the venerated Ganges River.

Sounds like there’s plenty of misadventures as they kept getting stuck on the ground over 60 times, haha.

But they meet some classic Indian people, which is one of the main reasons I love this country.

19) This is How I Save My Life by Amy Scher

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This journey doesn’t start in India, but it does end here.

Amy is looking for experimental medical treatment for a deadly Lyme disease, so as she’s desperate for a cure… she ends up in India risking it all.

Elizabeth Gilbert recommends this one, so if you liked Eat Pray Love, add this one to your list as well.

20) My Dateless Diary: An American Journey by R.K. Narayan

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another one that’s not set in India, but R.K. an Indian man traveling across America… and it sounds like it’s about his non-existent love live but it’s actually just his diary without dates.

He does make a connection with an iconic American actress though…

As an American, I learned about my own country as well as about India by his reflections.

21) City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

William Dalrymple is one of the most popular writers about India, and the impressive scope of his research into the history of the country is usually what draws readers to his work.

William explores the old extinct cities in Delhi and the mystery of the djinns, spirits that would recreate the city no matter how many times it was destroyed… which was relatively often considering how many times India was invaded, yikes.

If you’re going to Delhi, you’ll finish this book and know so much more about the city.

***Destinations***

While some of the above books were more travel adventures, these books focus in-depth on one place.

22) Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓🤓 
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’m drawn to the dark side of cities for some reason which is why I liked Shantaram and its sequel Mountain Shadow.

Suketu offers plenty of dark sides here as he shows us an inside look at opposing gangs and also dancers living in the underbelly of the city.

If you’re looking for hopeful warm feelings about Mumbai, this is NOT the book for you.

23) City Improbable: An Anthology of Writings on Delhi by Khushwant Singh

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another book about the triumphs and defeats of Delhi through the decades.

What’s cool about this book is that it is a number of stories from a wide range of writers, so you can hear different perspectives. From the locals to foreign tourists, even to the invaders… you can get firsthand perspectives through the ages.

Sometimes it’s funny too 🙂

24) Calcutta: Two Years in the City by Amit Chaudhuri

• Genre: Nonfiction, Travel, Memoir
• Popularity: 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️

Amit will show us the City of Joy, Calcutta or Kolkata, from a local perspective.

This award-winning author takes you through the streets and communities to show you its people.

***History Buffs***

I’m far from a history buff, but I’m sort of obsessed with getting the most from my time in India, so I’ve been slogging through some books with more facts and details.

25) The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Politics
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I just saw his statue in Pondicherry, now I’m reading the book he wrote in prison in the Ahmadnagar Fort in 1944.

He takes you from the very beginning of history to the 1940s. He’s such an iconic influential figure that it’s an essential read. Reminds me of reading Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography.

It is interesting too, especially the beginning.

26) India: A History by John Keay

• Genre: Nonfiction, History
• Popularity: 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

John sums up more than 5,000 years of India’s history in one book.

If you’re looking for an overview of India, like I am, this is a good place to start.

Keep in mind, it’s not a history textbook and John Keay is not an intellectual historian. It’s not exactly light reading though.

27) The Idea of India by Sunil Khilnani

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Politics
• Popularity: 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one is more about, what does it mean to be an Indian?

I’m so curious about the Indian people, so I have this one on my list. I’m glad it’s only ~200 pages though because it sounds a touch dry and like a textbook.

The author has connections with Nehru (mentioned above) as well, so has been called out for not being objective.

28) India after Gandhi by Ramachandra: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Politics
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Unlike the world’s other most populated country (China), India has had fair elections from the day of its independence in 1947.

If you live in the US or Europe you may take democracy for granted, or at least you did before recent political history 😬… But this book will make you appreciate the challenge of creating a working democracy.

29) An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India By Shashi Tharoor

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Politics
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Who doesn’t want to read about the bloody British always being jerks, haha.

This one gets great reviews and while it is a bit harsh on the Brits, it’s with good reason. It’s a perspective that as a traveler and guest of this country, I want to be conscious of.

There’s so much research here and he goes into things like, why cricket, tea and the English language were used to make the rule of India easier.

30) The Fishing Fleet: Husband Hunting in the Raj by Anne de Courcy

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Women
• Popularity: 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️

In the 1900s many British men sailed away to India to make a fortune and a career. This, in turn, led to many women hopping on a boat and following them.

They were called the Fishing Fleet and it’s an interesting perspective on life as a British woman at the turn of the 19th century.

It would be a good beach book, if you’re heading to Goa and thinking about love in an all-night party, haha.

31) Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Women
• Popularity: 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In another book with a focus on British women in India, this one has a collection of memoirs, letters and interviews that make for a very rich portrayal of the time.

The way the women handle living in India may make you think that not much has changed in the many years… they talk about the hot weather, staying healthy and being away from home.

32) The Last Mughal Emperor by William Dalrymple

• Genre: Nonfiction, History,
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I bought this book in Auroville and read it on a recent vacation in the Pondicherry area.

Delhi, under the Mughal rule sounds super chill actually. They had weddings with the bride-and-groom riding elephants, nightly poetry readings, and lots of delicious mangos to eat.

The Last Mughal Emperor was a poet and patron of the arts, and sounds like there was a lot of poetry and cultural events happening.

The story of the uprising in Delhi is tough to read at points – both the Indians and the British were brutal to each other.

But when I visit Humayun’s Tomb and the Red Fort, they will have so much more meaning for me now.

33) White Mughals by William Dalrymple

• Genre: Nonfiction, History,
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“White Mughals” were what they called British people who adapted to the Indian Culture.

They dressed like Indians, they took bibis (local wives), and they genuinely loved the Indian culture.

In the uprising of Delhi, many of them were so ingrained in the culture that when the local Indians revolted, they let many of them live… while brutally slaughtering the Indians who had converted to Christianity and were sympathetic to the British.

This story focuses specifically on one White Mughal, James Kirkpatrick, and his love affair with Khair un-Nissa, the niece of Hyderabad’s minister.

William Dalrymple is known for his extensive research and this book took over 5 years to write.

34) India: An Area of Darkness [First Book in a Trilogy] by V.S. Naipaul

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Travel, Memoir
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Written by a Nobel laureate, V.S. describes the country of his ancestors as he visits for the first time.

From Mumbai to Kashmir to the Himalayas to South India, he’ll take you through the contradictions and colors of India.

His findings and descriptions weren’t very pro-India, but they show a kindness and honesty you may appreciate.

This book is the first in a classic trilogy and the other two books are:

• India: A Wounded Civilization [1976]
• India: A Million Mutinies Now [1990]

***Literary Buffs***

If you’re the type who wants to read the classics because they are the classics (I am guilty as charged of this!), then here are some books that helped shaped Indian literature as well as world literature…

35) A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you’re traveling to India as a woman you are aware that the country gets a bad rap for how it treats women.

This classic confronts that issue years before the independence of India, as Adela Quested, a British woman, is at the heart of a novel confronting colonialism, racism and sexism.

Some people call it boring, and others beautiful.

36) My Experiments with Truth by M.K. Gandhi

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Philosophy, History
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

He’s the main man of India, I’m even scared to write about him for fear of getting something wrong.

I was just looking at a 13-foot-tall statue of him in Pondicherry and watching Indian tourists take selfies with him.

“I simply want to tell the story of my experiments with truth…as my life consists of nothing but those experiments.” 

Gandhi

I want to know about his life and his perspective. The guy was celibate, so I have to know more about that, haha. I also feel like I’m always doing “experiments” so maybe I can learn something. I watched the film about him in high school, but you can learn a lot about someone by how they write.

As Woodrow Wilson said,

I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.

Woodrow Wilson

It’s sort of a weird quote, but that is one thing I like about reading… it takes me into the minds of great men and women.

37) Kim by Rudyard Kipling

• Genre: Fiction, Classics, Adventure
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The story of Kim, he has British parents but is born in India. There’s also a priest who’s renounced the world.

It’s a buddy tale and an exciting adventure of these two friends.

38) Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

• Genre: Historical Fiction, Classics
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It’s the retelling of the story of the Buddha as he grows up and eventually dies in India.

It was popular in the 70s and a favorite of mine in college. It’s a quick read and one you can read over and over again.

39) Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand

• Genre: Historical Fiction, Classics
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The foreword is by E.M. Forster. It goes into the life of the lowest caste in India. I recently finished it and it’s given me an insight into the mind of how judgmental India once was…

I can NOT imagine being stuck in a life of poverty, without a way to dig myself out.

It’s a quick read, only 148 pages!

40) Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh

• Genre: Historical Fiction, Classics
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It’s a modern book, but it has had a big impact. If you’re new to what’s currently happening in Kashmir, then this book is a good start to understanding the horrors there.

Imagine living in a chill village in the remote area of Northern India with Muslims and Sikhs living side-by-side as they have for centuries. Then one day a train arrives with 1000s of dead bodies. Those of your friends, your family and now your enemies…

The book asks the question: What if you loved someone who was of the opposing religion… Would your love be able to withstand the cultural pressure?

41) Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is one of the most highly rated books that I’ve seen, and Jim Corbett sounds like a madman. He’s like the Steve Irwin of Indian in the 1930s and 40s.

He hunted big cats for local villages, and in this one, he tells 10 stories about hunting tigers in the Himalayas.

42) The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag by Jim Corbett

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Bet you can’t guess what this one’s about? 😉

This one’s less popular but still very highly rated. It’s a worthy sequel to Jim’s book about tigers. He has other books as well:

• The Temple Tiger and More Man-Eaters of Kumaon
• Jungle Lore
• The Champawat Man-Eater
• The Fortunate Tiger and Other Close Encounters

43) Gitanjali: Song Offerings by Rabindranath Tagore

• Genre: Poetry, Classics, Philosophy
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

W.B. Yeats writes the introduction to this book and helped introduce the now iconic Tagore to the world.

He won a Nobel Prize for his poetry, yet in his 20s lived in seclusion on a houseboat in Bengal.

***Spiritual Seekers***

If you’re heading to India for a spiritual retreat as I was, here are some options from others who have gone before us.

44) Nine Lives: Encounters with the Holy in Modern India by William Dalrymple

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Religion, Spirituality, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I like how this book combines the research William Dalrymple is so well-known for, with intriguing tales of spiritual seekers from all different religions and traditions.

One woman lives on an isolated, skull-filled cremation ground and explores Tantra to find fulfillment. That’s just one, the other tales sound equally interesting.

45) Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East by Gita Mehta

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Religion, Spirituality, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️

This Indian writer tells stories about Western seekers and tourists she meets in the 1960s and 70s.

I always crave an outside perspective on myself and my culture and this one delivers. It’s fun and who doesn’t like picking on hippies and spiritual seekers 😉

46) The Bhagvat-Geeta or Dialogues of Kreeshna and Arjoon, Translated by Charles Wilkins

• Genre: Nonfiction, History, Religion, Spirituality, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Bhagavad Gita or Bhagvat-Geeta as Charles Wilkins writes it, is the eminent story of a great warrior torn between whether to fight and kill his friends and family… or not fight and see other friends and family member killed.

It’s a tale that Indians know as much as a Christian would know about Moses and the Ark.

It’s an inspiring spiritual tale, because it talks about something that many other books do not… how to ACT in alignment with your spirituality.

Arjoon can’t retire to a mountain cave to grow out his beard and eat coconuts. He must decide to fight or not. This is a record of his conversations with Krishna, a famous god in Hindu.

This is the first translation, written by Charles Wilkins who lived in India for many decades. It’s a good place to start, if you want more like I do then, I’m looking at these other translations:

• My Gita by Devdutt Pattanaik: A modern mythologist reinterprets the classic for today’s audience.
• The Gospel of Selfless Action: The Gita according to Gandhi
• The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners
• Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation by Stephen Mitchell (I listened to the audio version of the Tao Te Ching on repeat for years)

The Gita is also good for spiritual seekers who are interested in how should they work? How should they earn money?

***Heart Throbs***

Some people read to think, others want to feel. These books capture the emotion of India and its people.

47) 2 States: The Story of My Marriage by Chetan Bhagat

• Genre: Fiction, Romance, Modern, Humor, Young Adult
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️

This is a fun lighter option, that doesn’t get the highest ratings, but is popular. When I’m reading reviews it sounds like what you’d read about books like 50 Shades of Grey, haha.

Some people hate it. Others think it’s amusing and entertaining. I like lighter books, so it’s added to my list.

I’m curious about the culture of love and romance in India too so I want to see a pop culture perspective.

48) Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

• Genre: Nonfiction, History
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Katherine Boo is a Pulitzer Prize winner, and this nonfiction book is a quicker read than you’d imagine. She has a way of reporting that exposes the heart of her subjects.

Near the luxurious hotels in Mumbai, is Annawadi a slum that exists in the shadows. Despite the poverty, the residents are filled with hope and Katherine tells the story of many of the residents with clarity and detail that make them jump off the page.

49) A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur by Gayatri Devi

• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, History
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This woman sounds impressive, let’s list some things about her:

• Daughter of a ruler
• Raised in a palace
• Shot a pather when she was 12
• If there was a list of most beautiful women in the world at the time, she would have made it
• Had a secret affair with a world-famous athlete

50) East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

• Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Travel, Women, British
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This historical fiction story is set in the 1920s and tells of three British women in Mumbai – from the luxurious parties to the austerity of the orphaned street kids.

51) The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a popular and highly-rated novel published in 2013 about a family in Calcutta.

The novel asks the question: Who are we?

That is the question this novel asks as it follows its characters through riots and the Naxalite movement, among other things.

52) The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Mahabharat is an epic Sanskrit poem that clocks in 1,800,000 words. That’s +200,000 lines of poetry! For context, that’s 10 times the Iliad and Odyssey…

I’d love to read the Mahabharat because it has had such an influence on Indian culture and specifically Hinduism, but I would need a month off from writing on this blog to finish.

That’s why this book looks so interesting.

It’s a modern retelling of the epic poem. It also has accurate historical details mixed with classic myths and legends.

53) The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one follows an American marine biologist whose family is from India as he explores the Sundarbans (small islands with mangroves known to have Royal Bengal tigers nearby).

As they push deeper into the backwaters, looking for a rare specifies of dolphin, they encounter politic pressure that threatens their mission and their lives.

54) What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin

• Genre: Historical Fiction, Women, Politics
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It’s a story about a love triangle – a man and his two wives. It’s told from the perspective of a young girl who becomes one of those wives.

It is a readable political feminist tour-de-force apparently.

55) The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Popularity: 🤓🤓🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️

This book won the Man Booker Prize in 2006, and is loved by critics.

It tells the story of an old angry judge who just wants to be left alone at his home at the base of the Mt Kanchenjunga. But his granddaughter, Sai comes to live with him.

It’s very readable, and fun, although some people were put off by the writing style.

***Hipsters***

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

In the same way, I want to seek out travel destinations that are far from the beaten path, I want books that no one else I know has ever read. Here are some that I added to my list…

56) Mr. Iyer Goes To War by Ryan Lobo

• Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Modern, Myth
• Popularity: 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️

Mr. Iyer is living in Varanasi, the place with the many sadhus and ghats where many Indians come to push their dead relatives into the Ganges on a burning raft.

As he’s devoting himself to reading spiritual texts most of the time, however, he gets in an accident, has a concussion and has a vision.

Upon awakening, he thinks it is up to him to bring back the. principles described in the epic Sanskrit poem the Mahabharata, so he goes on an adventure along the Ganges River to restore justice to the world.

Inspired by the classic Don Quixote, he brings along Bencho as his companion for some fun absurdist adventures.

57) Twilight in Delhi by Ahmed Ali

• Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Modern, Myth
• Popularity: 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️

This was first published in the 1940s. E.M. Forster called it “new and fascinating” and while it was popular with critics, most modern readers won’t have read it.

If you’re curious about learning more about 19th century Delhi, Ahmed brings the city to life in this book.

58) Empire of the Soul: Some Journeys in India by Paul William Roberts

• Genre: Nonfiction, Travel
• Popularity: 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For 20 years, Paul William Roberts has traveled through India and this book captures his journeys.

There’s a lot of history and details about the visual beauty of India.

People – Americans, mostly – realise how attached they are to material comforts when they arrive in India.

Paul William Roberts, Empire of the Soul

***Entrepreneurs and Digital Nomads***

I’m always looking for inspiration for my entrepreneurial projects.

I mentioned White Tiger above, but here are some others.

59) The Mountain Shadow by Gregory David Roberts

• Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Modern, Myth
• Popularity: 🤓🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is the sequel to Shantaram. While it’s not as good, if you liked Shantaram, I’d consider it a must-read.

It’s more spiritual than Shantaram, but it’s also darker as the main character gets more heavily involved in Mumbai’s mob. It took me about 100 pages to adapt to the darker elements of the main character, who is mostly presented as good in the first book.

In this book, he goes to meet a guru on a mountain though and I loved these sections. I also liked how business-minded he became as he had to make hard decisions.

60) Dhirubhai Ambani: Against All Odds by A G Krishnamurthy 

• Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Modern, Myth
• Popularity: 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️

The story of a well-known Indian entrepreneur, who went from a yarn business to a petrochemical mogul of the industry.

61) Bhujia Barons: The Untold Story of How Haldiram Built a 5000 Crore Empire by Pavitra Kumar

• Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Modern, Myth
• Popularity: 🤓
• Ratings: ⭐️⭐️

Haldirams is an Indian food brand with the name recognition of a McDonald’s in India. This book takes you through the story of the Agarwal family as they built the business.

It will show you how Indians do business so if you’re here on business, you can get a sense for the ethics, norms and mindset.

Plus, it’s just a rip-roaring tale with all sorts of drama. It reminds me of the movie, The Founder, about McDonald’s origin story. There’s no Michael Keaton here though 🙁

Related Questions:

What Books are like Shantaram?

• The Mountain Shadow by Gregory David Roberts: The sequel to Shantaram.
• Papillon by Henri Charriere: A memoir about a determined Frenchman who spends 14 years on an island prison and tries to escape multiple times.
• Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie: It’s also an inside look at India with great writing.
• Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketa Mehta: It’s also a dark look inside the criminal underworld of Mumbai.
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo: It’s a nonfiction story of a slum in Mumbai.

Books on India by Foreign Authors?

1. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
2. The Mountain Shadow by Gregory David Roberts
3. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
4. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
6. Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald
7. A Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton
8. This is How I Save My Life by Amy Scher
9. City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple
10. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
11. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
12. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
13. Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett

What Book Would You Add to Your List?

Do you want to read another book that I didn’t mention? Please add in the comments and share which ones you want to read most. 🙂