Books and Authors Questions for RRB NTPC

Books by Indian Political Leaders and Prime Ministers

RRB NTPC frequently pulls questions from books written by prominent Indian political figures. Jawaharlal Nehru, APJ Abdul Kalam, and Narendra Modi are the most tested authors. These questions are straightforward — memorize the author-book pair and you get the mark.

• Jawaharlal Nehru: Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History, Letters from a Father to His Daughter
• APJ Abdul Kalam: Wings of Fire (autobiography), Ignited Minds, India 2020, My Journey
• Narendra Modi: Exam Warriors, Convenient Action
• Indira Gandhi: My Truth
• B R Ambedkar: Annihilation of Caste, The Buddha and His Dhamma
• Mahatma Gandhi: My Experiments with Truth (autobiography), Hind Swaraj

Books by Freedom Fighters and National Icons

Books linked to India's independence movement appear regularly. These authors are historically significant so examiners love using them. Pay special attention to autobiographies as they are the most frequently asked sub-type.

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak: Gita Rahasya, Arctic Home in the Vedas
• Subhas Chandra Bose: The Indian Struggle
• Rabindranath Tagore: Gitanjali (Nobel Prize winning work), Gora, Ghare-Baire
• Sarojini Naidu: The Golden Threshold, The Bird of Time
• Swami Vivekananda: Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga
• Aurobindo Ghosh: The Life Divine, Savitri

Nobel Prize Winners and Their Famous Works

Nobel Prize in Literature winners, especially Indian-origin authors, are high-frequency in RRB NTPC. Rabindranath Tagore is asked almost every year in some form. V S Naipaul and Amartya Sen (Economics Nobel) also appear. Recent Nobel laureates are increasingly being tested.

• Rabindranath Tagore: Gitanjali — Nobel Prize in Literature 1913, first Asian to win it
• V S Naipaul: A House for Mr Biswas, In a Free State — Nobel 2001
• Amartya Sen: The Argumentative Indian, Development as Freedom — Economics Nobel 1998
• Rudyard Kipling: The Jungle Book, Kim — Nobel 1907
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude — Nobel 1982

Books by Contemporary Indian Authors

Booker Prize winners and popular Indian English authors are regularly tested. Arundhati Roy and Salman Rushdie are the most asked. Recent Booker and JCB Prize winners are becoming part of the question pool as the exam updates its GA bank.

• Arundhati Roy: The God of Small Things (Booker 1997), The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
• Salman Rushdie: Midnight's Children (Booker 1981), The Satanic Verses
• Vikram Seth: A Suitable Boy, The Golden Gate
• Chetan Bhagat: Five Point Someone, 2 States, Half Girlfriend
• Amish Tripathi: The Immortals of Meluha, Scion of Ikshvaku
• R K Narayan: Malgudi Days, The Guide (Sahitya Akademi winner)

Important International Authors and Their Iconic Books

A small but steady set of questions come from international literature. Examiners pick iconic titles that most aspirants have heard of but may confuse with the wrong author. Shakespeare, George Orwell, and J K Rowling are the safest bets to memorize.

• William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream
• George Orwell: Animal Farm, 1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
• J K Rowling: Harry Potter series
• Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations
• Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace, Anna Karenina
• Mark Twain: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Books by Presidents, Scientists, and Sports Personalities

This category covers a wide range of Indian achievers. Books by former Presidents and scientists are tested especially in GA sections focused on India. Sports autobiographies have recently entered the question bank as cricket and sports awareness grows.

• APJ Abdul Kalam: Wings of Fire is his most tested book — remember it is his autobiography
• Pranab Mukherjee: The Presidential Years, The Dramatic Decade
• Milkha Singh: The Race of My Life
• Sachin Tendulkar: Playing It My Way (autobiography)
• Sania Mirza: Ace Against Odds
• Kapil Dev: By God's Decree

• Confusing Nehru's Discovery of India with Aurobindo's The Life Divine — both sound philosophical but belong to different authors entirely
• Mixing up APJ Kalam's Wings of Fire (autobiography) with Ignited Minds — both are by Kalam but Wings of Fire is the autobiography, not Ignited Minds
• Attributing Midnight's Children to Arundhati Roy instead of Salman Rushdie — both are Booker winners which causes confusion
• Thinking Gitanjali is a novel — it is a collection of poems by Tagore, and this distinction sometimes appears in the question
• Confusing Animal Farm and 1984 as two different authors — both are written by George Orwell

• WINGS FLY HIGH: Wings of Fire is Kalam's autobiography — Kalam was a missile scientist who made India fly, so he wrote Wings of Fire about himself
• NEHRUVIAN TRIO: Nehru wrote 3 big books — Discovery, Glimpses, Letters — think DGL like Delhi-Gate-Letter
• TAGORE WINS FIRST: Tagore was the FIRST Asian Nobel in Literature in 1913 with Gitanjali — remember 1913 as 19-13, Tagore was from Bengal which has 13 letters
• ROY AND RUSHDIE WIN BOOKER: Arundhati Roy won for God of Small Things (1997), Rushdie won for Midnight's Children (1981) — Roy is newer, Rushdie is older

• RRB NTPC typically asks 1 to 2 questions from Books and Authors in Stage 1 CBT — they are usually direct and take under 20 seconds if you have memorized the pairs
• Autobiographies are the most favored question type — always note which book is an autobiography when memorizing
• Recent paper trends show increased focus on sports personalities' books and current affairs authors, so check the last 6 months before your exam
• Questions are rarely tricky on this topic — the difficulty is in memory, not logic, so flashcard-style revision of author-book pairs works best
• If confused between two options, eliminate using nationality — if the question is about an Indian freedom fighter, the answer will not be an international author