My bookshelf

If anyone cares, the below are the books in my bookshelf with annotations about how much I used them:

JEE PCM:

• Aakash Targets
  • I solved each of them completely for all subjects. The section H, especially the Aakash challenger questions are quite helpful.
  • It seems that they changed the targets to levels. The level 3 questions were the ones I liked and learned from. However, all sections are pretty much important so I didn’t leave any unsolved.
• I had 5 notebooks for each of the PCM for JEE preparation. I have bad note-making skills and, mostly, I didn’t refer to them again. However, I am happy that I tried to make the notes good-looking and neat as that requires extra hard work and helped me focus in the class.
• Success Achiever
  • Was worth solving with not too hard but unique questions. I fully completed it.
• Success Magnet
  • Had some difficult questions, similar to JEE-advanced. It was 99% error-free and has been updated/proofread recently to remove the remaining errors. I found many really cool questions in this. I solved about 70% for each subject of both class 11th and 12th.
• Final Stroke
  • I didn’t find motivation to solve these heavy books, but I was held accountable(had to update my progress and all), so I completed about 50% for the Mains and 60% for the Advanced. It has decent questions, but too many (this might be biased because we were given this book on the first day of 11th, while it is supposed to be solved after the preparation).

Physics:

• Problems in General Physics by I.E. Irodov
  • One of the best books I have encountered so far. It is simply amazing. I was first recommended this book in 9th grade by my physics teacher and I solved the first 100 questions of it. I was amazed by the quality of the questions on that day. After that, I next opened the book at the start of 11th and have been completing it intermittently throughout 2 years. I have almost completed the JEE relevant part and done some extra questions on awesome topics as well. Moreover, after seeing previous year papers, I was amazed with the similarity of questions. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a physics problem book to try and complete this out. It ain’t an easy book, with my maximum speed around 20 questions per hour and minimum around 4, but it is worth it. On another note, I won’t recommend the one with green cover (not naming publication due to obvious reasons), because it has many mistakes in answers. I used the MTG one and it has much fewer mistakes in my opinion and I would also put up the mistakes I have found so far; just ping me if I don’t.
• Aptitude Test Problems in Physics by S. S Krotov
  • This is another cool book with some good problems similar to Irodov. Try this out if you loved Irodov. Also, I think all the problems are relevant to JEE, but I haven’t solved it completely so point out if I am wrong.
• Pathfinder for Olympiad and JEE Advanced Physics
  • This has amazing questions for physics which need an excellent conceptual understanding of the topic. We were given ‘Practice Sheets’ after completion of a set of 3-4 chapters which had (extremely) hard problems and practice and test our concepts. I realized later on that most of them were from Pathfinder. I haven’t directly solved many questions from Pathfinder, but whatever I have tried, I found it extremely intriguing.
• 200 Puzzling Physics Problems: With Hints and Solutions by Gyula Honyek, K. F Riley, and Péter Gnädig
  • It is an amazing book with the best questions of physics I have found so far. It is worth solving completely just for curiosity. I would highly recommend this to any physics enthusiast.
• A Collection of Questions and Problems in Physics by L. A. Sena
  • It is similar to Irodov in my experience, however the most I did was open, saw some questions, got amazed, and kept it back in the library :)
• Concepts of Physics by H. C. Verma
  • We were told to solve this book by our physics teacher, but, personally I can’t say I loved this book. (Sorry H. C. Verma sir) I think the book is great for building the base of physics and found the conceptual problems thought-provoking. However, the only reason I didn’t solve it much because I get bored while solving easier subjective problems. I thought my base was good, so being ‘forced’ to solve this book didn’t make much sense.

Chemistry:

• Concise Inorganic Chemistry by J. D Lee
  • I used the original book and I read about 30% on my own. For the rest of JEE relevant material, I used Anki Decks made by my friends.
• Vogel’s Qualitative Inorganic Analysis by Arthur Vogel and G. Svehla
  • It is specifically for Qualitative Analysis and I completed all the JEE relevant parts and made Anki cards from it. I am proud that I could complete such a book, even when I do not ‘like’ inorganic chemistry.
• A guidebook to mechanism in organic chemistry by Peter Sykes
  • I didn’t read it completely but I still wished I had completed it. It seems an awesome book to make organic chemistry concepts crystal clear.
• Modern Approach to Physical Chemistry by R.C. Mukherjee
  • Solved some parts of it, but we were given all the good questions in concise form, so I just solved 150 best questions from the book.
• Advanced Problems in Organic Chemistry for JEE by M.S. Chauhan
  • I solved less than 10% of the problems, but it seems good enough for practice. My classmates have almost completed this book though.
• Problems in Inorganic Chemistry for JEE Main & Advanced by V.K. Jaiswal
  • Sadly, I bought it and never solved it. A cursory glance indicates many problems I have already seen in question banks of Aakash.

JEE Mathematics:

• Advanced Problems in Mathematics for JEE(main & advanced) by Vikas Gupta & Pankaj Joshi
  • I think it has excellent problems and was helpful for me to practice after the preparation was over, but again, I solved less than 30% of it because I focussed much on Aakash targets.
• Plane Trigonometry by S. L. Loney
  • Has good theory and problems, but I found most problems in question banks of Aakash so I didn’t open the book more than a couple of times.
• The elements of coordinate geometry by S. L. Loney
  • I referred it a few times to improve concepts and solve subjective problems of coordinate geometry, but again I found most good questions in question banks.
• Problems in Calculus of One Variable: (with Elements of Theory) by Isaak Abramovich Maron
  • I used it mainly for building concepts as the base of my calculus wasn’t as strong (mostly because we don’t prove the theorems/formulae which we use in JEE calculus).
• Higher algebra by H. S Hall
  • Just kept in my bookshelf for years :(

Olympiad Maths:

• All the useful books (straight from the original website) are here.
• An Excursion in Mathematics (Bhaskaracharya Pratishthana)
  • I had this from 9th and I solved some problems from it whenever RMO or Pre-RMO was near, but I doubt I have completed more than 10% of it.
• Mathematical Circles: (Russian Experience) by Dmitrii Vladimirovich Fomin and Sergei Aleksandrovich Genkin
  • It has quite good problems and I loved solving this book whenever I was in Olympiad Maths mindset. However, I doubt I have solved more than 20% of it.
• Personally, I didn’t do many books for Olympiad books but solved handouts, problems, etc.

Astronomy/Astrophysics:

• Schaum Astronomy Outline
  • I read it completely while studying for INAO.
• Astronomy: Principles and Practice by Archie Roy and David Clarke
  • I read it before OCSC and the same concepts were discussed in OCSC, so it was extremely helpful.
• Fundamental Astronomy by Hannu Karttunen
  • Same as above, except this is a much heavier book, so I had to skim through most parts. However, it is extremely helpful for getting familiar with astronomy/astrophysics of olympiad level.
• Problems and Solutions: International Olympiads on Astronomy and Astrophysics by Aniket Sule
  • A compilation of previous year problems of IOAA; I did it in OCSC. Also, I can go on praising the author and you will realize this the day when you enter OCSC.
• Astrophysics for Physicists by Arnab Rai Choudhuri
  • Everyone was given this textbook at OCSC. It is an advanced undergraduate or graduate level book. I haven’t read it yet, but I will probably use it when I am taking an astrophysics course at MIT.

Some other books

• A Collection of Interesting General Chemistry Experiments by Anil J. Elias (got it as a gift at JSO OCSC)
• Campbell Biology (a super-thick book which I studied, some parts, for JSO biology)

Non-academic books:

• Black Holes: The Reith Lectures by Stephen Hawking
• Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking
• Quantum revolution: What is reality? by Ganeshan Venkataraman (got as a award for top 1% in NSEP)
• Chandrasekar and His Limit by Ganeshan Venkataraman (got as an award for top 1% in NSEA)
• A Briefer History of Time by Leonard Mlodinow and Stephen Hawking
• I read some other books by Michio Kaku which I my friend Sandeepan had whenever I felt super bored with studies
• Exam Warriors by Narendra Modi (Got it as a gift from Narendra Modi; it is in the bag in the famous photo of me with him :))