text: what are the best books for upsc(sociology)? i wanna know what books should i refer for my upsc preliminary exam.my optional subject is sociology. durkeheim, max weber. in general sociologists suffer from intellectual myopia. all they do is quote each other. and worse it's the same quotes doing the rounds. a real sociologist should read/be aware of what's going on in the real world, which they have trouble dealing with: so untidy and unquantifiable. [the horror of haveing to rub shoulders with the overwashed masses].  i should know: i double majored in the subject for my b.a. i also managed to get through the three years on about half a dozen socilogists [apart from the stuff theu force feed you for your essays] but don't let that put you off. i got through with nietzsche, novels [a great source for getting the feel of the `street'] ignoring marx. one woman in a tutorial quoted `mein kamf' and didn't that put the cat amongst the pidgeons. she did not get disqualified for adolf knew the public and played them for the suckers they were. and if you don't like their waffling obfuscations, do what i did. write the essays with footnotes telling your version and why the socioligists were talking piffling adacemia. one 3000 word essay had 7000 words in footnotes. it shut them up and i passed. go for it, give them heaps [only after you have successfully enrolled of course] good luck. keep your wits and you won't be bored too much. as for getting employed that is another story altogether. maybe when they come up with something that is original, then maybe they might be listenend to. last time i was at uni -a while back- they had just discoverd the word `cognitive'. and didn't they have trouble understanding that with the usual rider: more research has to be done. on what? defining a definition everybody knows about?  have fun.