Hi folks,

Abrahim Shah here. I’ve been meaning to write a post on the books you should read and
here it is:
Perhaps no issue confounds students more than the books they should read for CSS. My
advice, in a nutshell, is to remember that CSS requires specialized and focused study. This
might go against the grain in terms of advice you will hear, but there is no need to have an
extensive reading list for CSS. There are several reasons why I recommend this approach.
First, there are so many subjects—you cannot afford to read 3 or 4 books for each course.
Second, you only have 30 to 35 minutes for each question in one exam. It is not possible to
reproduce material from multiple books in those thirty minutes.
I thus strongly recommend that you pick one or two good sources for each subject and
prepare the bulk of the syllabus from these sources. Even in these sources you do not have
to read the entire books. In the books I will be recommending below, you will notice I only
recommend reading a few topics from multiple books which occur frequently to supplement
your preparation.
It is crucial you heed this advice. Otherwise, you will fall into the same vicious cycle most
aspirants fall into, where they’re reading multiple sources and at the end do not have
enough time to revise their material. Stick to a few good sources and instead spend time on
making comprehensive notes (I will make a post on this later as well) and on revising the
material.
These are the books I would recommend for each subject:
English Grammar:
Cracking the SAT by Princeton Review
Barron’s GRE 800 word list (for vocabulary)
General Science:
I did not use any book for general science. Instead, use sources such as Khan Academy or
other articles, videos you find on the internet. Remember, this subject was previously called
everyday science, so you only need basic understanding of each topic. In the topic on
animal and plant cells, for instance, you only need to know the diagrams and major
differences between these cells. You do not need any further detail.
General Ability:
Again, I did not use any books. Instead, use the website indiabix.com to practice the
mathematics required for this portion.
Pakistan Affairs:
1.Trek to Pakistan by Ahmed Saeed for pre-partition
2.Pakistan: A New History by Ian Talbot for post-partition
3.Read only a few chapters from Christophe Jaffrelot’s Pakistan Paradox to supplement
your understanding of post-partition Pakistan.
4.For contemporary topics, google these topics and use articles and reports think tanks like
Jinnah Institute, PIPS, ISSI publish
5.Read Dawn daily—but only news you find pertinent and only read articles relevant to your
preparation.
Current Affairs:
Again, no books for this subject. Instead, read good sources such as the Foreign Affairs
magazine (you can find free copies on the internet) and reports published by international
think tanks such as the Council of Foreign Relations, Brookings Institution. It is very
important that you consult good sources, but there’s no need to consult multiple sources.
For instance, if you’re reading Foreign Affairs and Al-Jazeera, there’s no need to read The
Guardian, NY Times alongside as well unless they publish something you can’t find in these
sources (which is rare). Remember, stick to few sources.
Islamiat
This is one subject I would recommend consulting multiple sources for, since this subject
has a high rate of failure:
1.O levels Islamiat by Farkhanda Noor Mohammad (do the basics from here—articles of
faith, pillars, life of the Prophet pbuh)
2.Dr. Hamidullah’s Introduction to Islam (read chapters on economic system, social system,
moral system, judicial system)
3.The internet. I would google topics such as ‘importance of fasting in Islam’ and read a
good article on the topic. You will find great material on cssforum for this.
4.Islamiat is one subject you should put a lot of emphasis on since this can give you good
marks if you prepare well for it.
Economics
1. Principles of Microeconomics by Mankiw
2. Principles of Macroeconomics by Mankiw
3. Development Economics by Todaro (just a few chapters on theories)
4. Issues in Pakistan’s Economy by Akbar Zaidi (for paper II)
5. Since Economics is a 200 marks subject, it requires more books, but as you can see, you
only need to do a handful of chapters from Todaro and most from Mankiw’s books since
micro and macroeconomics form the bulk of the syllabus
History of the USA
1. AP US History
a. Best book on US history. I would suggest doing the entire book
2. Unfinished Nation by Alan Brinkley
a. Only do popular topics such as civil rights, cold war, civil war
Anthropology
1. Cultural Anthropology by Haviland (do almost all chapters)
2. Cultural Anthropology by Kottak (only a few chapters on culture, cultural change)
3. Visions of Culture (for theories—only do the theorists and theories mentioned in the
syllabus)
Environmental Sciences
1. Botkin and Keller’s Environmental Sciences (do this for the science part)
2. For the global movements and laws, use google. You will find excellent material on this
part of the syllabus on the internet.
International Law
1. Akehurst’s Modern Introduction to International Law
a. Best book you’ll find on international law. Read the chapters included in the syllabus.
b. For individual cases, read quick summaries online.
You can download most of these books for free from: gen.lib.rus.ec.
These are the books I used for the subjects I had. I cannot recommend books for the
subjects I did not opt for, and for those I would recommend you reach out to students who
opted for these subjects. Please also note I did not recommend any notes from seniors or
any compilations local institutions make. This is because these sources generally copy
paste from the internet and organize their material in a way which makes it very difficult to
read.
I did not recommend any book for essays either because I do not think it is conducive to
read and memorize essays. If you still feel you need to do this, you can always find good
compilations in the market. Go for one you find appealing.
Good luck,
Abrahim