Fans pick 100 books like I am a Troll

By Swati Chaturvedi,

Here are 100 books that I am a Troll fans have personally recommended if you like I am a Troll. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics

Shivam Shankar Singh Author Of How to Win an Indian Election

From my list on understanding Indian politics.

Why am I passionate about this?

I graduated early from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor to come back to my home country and work in Indian politics. Since then I’ve worked with a Member of Parliament, handled campaign design in states across India, and headed data analytics for India’s largest political party. This experience gave me an inside view of how politics operates and how elections are actually won. The fact that this was at a time when Indian politics was going through massive changes with micro-targeting, digital technologies and disinformation gaining ground made the experience even more unique. Based on this experience, my books detail how power is gained, (mis)used, and lost.

Shivam's book list on understanding Indian politics

Shivam Shankar Singh Why did Shivam love this book?

There’s an inexorable nexus between crime and politics in many developing nations around the world. India is no exception. This book presents statistics to show just how much Indian politics are dominated by people with serious criminal cases against them and uses case studies to show why such individuals continue to win elections. For me, the book served as an excellent introduction to understanding voter behaviour and why many developmental projects failed to have the desired impacts. For anyone trying to understand the politics of India, the book serves as an excellent introduction.

By Milan Vaishnav,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked When Crime Pays as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first thorough study of the co-existence of crime and democratic processes in Indian politics

In India, the world's largest democracy, the symbiotic relationship between crime and politics raises complex questions. For instance, how can free and fair democratic processes exist alongside rampant criminality? Why do political parties recruit candidates with reputations for wrongdoing? Why are one-third of state and national legislators elected-and often re-elected-in spite of criminal charges pending against them? In this eye-opening study, political scientist Milan Vaishnav mines a rich array of sources, including fieldwork on political campaigns and interviews with candidates, party workers, and voters, large…


Book cover of The Verdict: Decoding India's Elections

Shivam Shankar Singh Author Of How to Win an Indian Election

From my list on understanding Indian politics.

Why am I passionate about this?

I graduated early from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor to come back to my home country and work in Indian politics. Since then I’ve worked with a Member of Parliament, handled campaign design in states across India, and headed data analytics for India’s largest political party. This experience gave me an inside view of how politics operates and how elections are actually won. The fact that this was at a time when Indian politics was going through massive changes with micro-targeting, digital technologies and disinformation gaining ground made the experience even more unique. Based on this experience, my books detail how power is gained, (mis)used, and lost.

Shivam's book list on understanding Indian politics

Shivam Shankar Singh Why did Shivam love this book?

History often offers clues into what’s happening in the current times. This book, written by one of the most popular faces decoding Indian elections on television, provides an account of elections starting from India’s first election in 1952 until now. As I read through this book, I realized that what seems to be unprecedented to a young person might not be so when viewed through a historical perspective, and this book offers that important perspective. It also documents how election campaigns have transformed over the years and the major challenges disadvantaged groups face when trying to exercise their democratic right of voting, making it an excellent read for those looking to understand India’s democratic setup. 

By Prannoy Roy, Dorab R. Sopariwala,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Verdict as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

What are the key factors that win or lose elections in India? What does, or does not, make India's democracy tick? Is this the end of anti-incumbency? Are opinion polls and exit polls reliable? How pervasive is the 'fear factor'? Does the Indian woman's vote matter? Does the selection of candidates impact results? Are elections becoming more democratic or less so? Can electronic voting machines (EVMs) be fiddled with? Can Indian elections be called 'a jugaad system'? Published on the eve of India's next general elections, The Verdict will use rigorous psephology, original research and as-yet-undisclosed facts to talk about…


Book cover of The Silent Coup: A History of India's Deep State

Shivam Shankar Singh Author Of How to Win an Indian Election

From my list on understanding Indian politics.

Why am I passionate about this?

I graduated early from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor to come back to my home country and work in Indian politics. Since then I’ve worked with a Member of Parliament, handled campaign design in states across India, and headed data analytics for India’s largest political party. This experience gave me an inside view of how politics operates and how elections are actually won. The fact that this was at a time when Indian politics was going through massive changes with micro-targeting, digital technologies and disinformation gaining ground made the experience even more unique. Based on this experience, my books detail how power is gained, (mis)used, and lost.

Shivam's book list on understanding Indian politics

Shivam Shankar Singh Why did Shivam love this book?

Although elections are dependent on how people choose to cast their ballot in the voting booth, politics is much larger than just elections. Political power isn’t just retained by convincing citizens to vote for you, it is sometimes also retained by crushing opposition voices and concocting fake narratives. This book shows how political parties in India have used organs of the state, including the police, investigative bodies, and intelligence agencies to consolidate power. It was a heartbreaking read, but it offered key insights into understanding how political power is actually wielded in the world’s largest democracy. 

By Josy Joseph,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Silent Coup as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

Shivam Shankar Singh Author Of How to Win an Indian Election

From my list on understanding Indian politics.

Why am I passionate about this?

I graduated early from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor to come back to my home country and work in Indian politics. Since then I’ve worked with a Member of Parliament, handled campaign design in states across India, and headed data analytics for India’s largest political party. This experience gave me an inside view of how politics operates and how elections are actually won. The fact that this was at a time when Indian politics was going through massive changes with micro-targeting, digital technologies and disinformation gaining ground made the experience even more unique. Based on this experience, my books detail how power is gained, (mis)used, and lost.

Shivam's book list on understanding Indian politics

Shivam Shankar Singh Why did Shivam love this book?

It takes a lot from a lot of different stakeholders for a democracy to thrive. It requires unbiased institutions that ensure a level playing field for all political parties and candidates, and one of the primary institutions that keep democracy alive is the media. A vote is only an informed decision when voters have accurate information to base their decision on. The responsibility of making this information accessible rests with a nation’s media. For this reason, it is also one of the first institutions that is targeted by any politician wanting to consolidate power. This book, written by one of India’s leading journalists details how media institutions can be transformed from sources of accurate information to drivers of fear, and how that damages democracy. 

By Ravish Kumar,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Free Voice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'This brave and timely book should be required reading for every Indian.'--Nayantara Sahgal

In this revised paperback edition of his best-selling book, Ravish Kumar, one of our bravest and most mature public voices, examines why debate and dialogue have given way to hate and intolerance in India, how elected representatives, the media and other institutions are failing us, and looks at ways to repair the damage to our democracy.

A new introduction and two additional essays examine developments since the election results of May 2019.


Book cover of The Impossible Us

Clare Swatman Author Of A Love to Last a Lifetime

From my list on love stories that don’t follow the same old path.

Why am I passionate about this?

From the moment I started reading those ‘create your own story’ books as a child, I’ve loved a story with a different ending, or at least the possibility of a different ending because I like to be taken by surprise. Having spent years as a magazine journalist interviewing people about their lives, I knew I wanted to write stories about people, because people are fascinating and surprising. My fascination with people and time travel also probably explains why my debut novel, Before You Go, had both of those elements in them – and when I find a book that bends convention a little – or a lot – I’ll shout about it from the rooftops!

Clare's book list on love stories that don’t follow the same old path

Clare Swatman Why did Clare love this book?

I read this book last year and adored it from the moment it began.

I knew straight away it was going to be something special when I realised there was something unusual about Nick and Bee’s relationship – and oh my!

Without giving too much away (trust me, it will spoil it!), it allows you to instantly suspend your disbelief and be swept up into the love story that you know, in your brain, can’t possibly exist, but which your heart desperately wants you to believe. 

I read it in a day because I simply couldn’t put it down, and recommend it to everyone I see – and no book can come more recommended than that!

Book cover of Know-It-All Society: Truth and Arrogance in Political Culture

Virginia Rademacher Author Of Derivative Lives: Biofiction, Uncertainty, and Speculative Risk in Contemporary Spanish Narrative

From my list on combating post-truth contagions.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a writer and professor of literary studies whose work has been deeply involved in topics of truth, realism, and public policy. My recent book considers works of fiction that openly and honestly experiment with questions of uncertainty, identity, and risk in the supermodern present. This book draws from disciplinary discourses in law, finance, and economics, which similarly contend with competing claims to truth and value and dive deep into the circumstantial and speculative games that authors play when they write fiction about reality. I have my PhD in Spanish Literature (UVA), M.A. in International Affairs and Economics (Johns Hopkins Univ.), and a B.A. from Harvard University.

Virginia's book list on combating post-truth contagions

Virginia Rademacher Why did Virginia love this book?

I found incredibly compelling the argument of how important humility and the willingness to admit what we don’t know are to democratic, liberal thought.

That we have become a society that rarely listens to ideas that challenge our own or that disrupt what we think we know to be true–is hugely dangerous. 

As Lynch explores, more information has not led to greater certainty or confidence in the answers we find. What we are experiencing is not only a crisis of truth, but one of trust.

By Michael P. Lynch,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Know-It-All Society as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Taking stock of our fragmented political landscape, Michael Patrick Lynch delivers a trenchant philosophical take on digital culture and its tendency to make us into dogmatic know-it-alls. The internet-where most shared news stories are not even read by the person posting them-has contributed to the rampant spread of "intellectual arrogance." In this culture, we have come to think that we have nothing to learn from one another; we are rewarded for emotional outrage over reflective thought; and we glorify a defensive rejection of those different from us.

Interweaving the works of classic philosophers such as Hannah Arendt and Bertrand Russell…


Book cover of Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest

Nora Sandler Author Of Writing a C Compiler: Build a Real Programming Language from Scratch

From my list on systems and system failures for programmers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love computers, and especially computer systems. I’m interested in how different pieces of hardware and software, like processors, operating systems, compilers, and linkers, work together to get things done. Early in my career, as a software security tester, I studied how different components interacted to find vulnerabilities. Now that I work on compilers, I focus on the systems that transform source code into a running program. I’m also interested in how computer systems are shaped by the people who build and use them—I believe that creating safer, more reliable software is a social problem as much as a technical one.

Nora's book list on systems and system failures for programmers

Nora Sandler Why did Nora love this book?

This book gave me a new framework for thinking about how political change happens and how technology shapes our society. It analyzes how social media platforms like Facebook have helped antiauthoritarian movements achieve dazzling success almost overnight—and how those platforms have weakened and endangered those same movements. I loved that this book was clear and readable without oversimplifying the topic. It showed—as Tufecki writes, quoting another scholar—that “technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.”

This isn’t exactly a book about computer systems, but I decided to include it because it gave me a deeper understanding of how technological and social systems influence each other—which I hope will change how I write software myself.

By Zeynep Tufekci,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Twitter and Tear Gas as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From New York Times opinion columnist Zeynep Tufekci, an firsthand account and incisive analysis of the role of social media in modern protest

"[Tufekci's] personal experience in the squares and streets, melded with her scholarly insights on technology and communication platforms, makes [this] such an unusual and illuminating work."-Carlos Lozada, Washington Post

"Twitter and Tear Gas is packed with evidence on how social media has changed social movements, based on rigorous research and placed in historical context."-Hannah Kuchler, Financial Times

To understand a thwarted Turkish coup, an anti-Wall Street encampment, and a packed Tahrir Square, we must first comprehend the…


Book cover of No One Is Talking About This

Stephen Harrison Author Of The Editors

From my list on real-life experience of living and working online.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a novelist who draws inspiration from my work experience as both a journalist covering tech platforms and a lawyer advising clients on tech transactions. It fascinates me how the internet has become ubiquitous in our lives, and yet it appears so rarely in popular fiction. My high school English teachers taught me that we don’t read just for escapism but to better understand the full range of human experience. Given how deeply technology shapes today’s moral problems, I believe fiction should address these issues head-on. I’m excited to share this list of books that depict how the internet is affecting us—for better and for worse.

Stephen's book list on real-life experience of living and working online

Stephen Harrison Why did Stephen love this book?

I was blown away by this book, which beautifully captures the fragmented, jarring experience of being “Extremely Online.” The reader sees the world through the protagonist’s eyes as she scrolls, argues with strangers, and experiences the constant pressure to generate hot takes—especially once an absurd tweet propels her to celebrity.

The book conveys the tension between online interactions (ephemeral, yes, but not necessarily lacking in genuine human emotion) and serious offline issues, like the family tragedy that finally pulls the main character away from the digital fray. I laughed out loud at the over-sharing and performative virtue signaling in the Reddit-like Portal. Haven’t we all encountered “that guy” online?

By Patricia Lockwood,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked No One Is Talking About This as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Patricia Lockwood is the voice of a generation' Namita Gokhale 'A masterpiece' Guardian 'I really admire and love this book' Sally Rooney 'An intellectual and emotional rollercoaster' Daily Mail 'I can't remember the last time I laughed so much reading a book' David Sedaris 'A rare wonder . . . I was left in bits' Douglas Stuart * WINNER OF THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2022 * * SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021 * * SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021 * * A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK * ______________________________________________ This is a story about…


Book cover of Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

Christopher Dale Author Of Better Halves: Rebuilding a Post-Addiction Marriage

From my list on couples recovering from addiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a husband, father, writer, and recovering addict – and not necessarily in that order. Early in my marriage, I became a full-blown, low-bottom cocaine addict. While it wasn’t surprising that active addiction nearly led to divorce, my wife and I were baffled and discouraged when my newfound sobriety brought its own existential marital issues. Frustratingly, there was a dearth of resources for couples in recovery, especially compared to the ample support available to recovering addicts. As an avid freelance writer, I decided to add to this sparse genre by sharing our struggles, setbacks, and successes en route to a happy, secure marriage. 

Christopher's book list on couples recovering from addiction

Christopher Dale Why did Christopher love this book?

More and more of our interactions occur via social media. This does more than poison our minds; it poisons our relationships, including our most intimate one: life partner. 

There are established downsides to social media, including its addictive nature and oxymoronic means of fomenting alienation. It promotes comparison-driven inferiority complexes, and allows racists and bigots to hide behind pseudonyms. 

But for marriages, social media’s most worrisome issue is its promotion of phoniness. Cyber platforms prompt people to portray themselves in a faux-optimized light – happier, wealthier, and more moral than they really are. They also promote groupthink and reticence driven by fear of backlash. 

A marriage in recovery requires two honest, unabashed partners. Two people trying to heal must minimize the festering wounds inherent in social media.

By Jaron Lanier,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'A blisteringly good, urgent, essential read' ZADIE SMITH

Jaron Lanier, the world-famous Silicon Valley scientist-pioneer and 'high-tech genius' (Sunday Times) who first alerted us to the dangers of social media, explains why its toxic effects are at the heart of its design, and explains in ten simple arguments why liberating yourself from its hold will transform your life and the world for the better.

Social media is making us sadder, angrier, less empathetic, more fearful, more isolated and more tribal. In recent months it has become horribly clear that social media is not bringing us together - it is tearing…


Book cover of How to Stay Safe on Social Media: Social Media Dos and Don'ts: What Kids and Parents Should Know

Eric J. Rzeszut Author Of 10 Don'ts on Your Digital Devices: The Non-Techie's Survival Guide to Cyber Security and Privacy

From my list on to help you protect your personal information.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been an information technology and cybersecurity professional for over two decades. I’ve learned over and over again that “people are the weakest link.” You can build the most secure system in the world, with stringent password requirements. But if the user writes their password down and leaves it where someone else can see it, system security is irrelevant! The easiest way to gain access to a system is via “social engineering” – to trick a human being into giving you the access you need, rather than trying to hack the system itself. The books on this list will help the reader lower their chances of being exploited like this.

Eric's book list on to help you protect your personal information

Eric J. Rzeszut Why did Eric love this book?

This book focuses on cybersecurity for parents and teenagers, specifically focusing on social media. As a parent of a teenager myself, I know how critical this area really is. Teens are often using social networks and communication channels that their parents are mostly or completely unfamiliar with. Due to that lack of familiarity, parents have a hard time monitoring or setting appropriate limits on the ways their children use social media. Author Effie Manolas wrote this book for both parents and teens, enabling an open conversation on both the benefits and the risks of social media.

By Effie Manolas,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How to Stay Safe on Social Media as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Do you feel your child isn’t using social media correctly?

Social media is a powerful platform that can either make the world better–or more dangerous. When a person doesn’t know how to use social media the right way, they can break relationships, disseminate false information, or even tarnish their own reputation.

As a parent, the last thing you want is for your child to be using social media in a way that can hurt them. But parents can hardly help their children if they themselves remain oblivious to the repercussions of their behavior on social media.

Teach your child to…


Book cover of When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics
Book cover of The Verdict: Decoding India's Elections
Book cover of The Silent Coup: A History of India's Deep State

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Interested in social media, India, and trolls?

Social Media 150 books
India 491 books
Trolls 16 books