India, Dec. 28 -- With a microscopic organism upending life as we know it, the realm of books was among the few which held its own, operating near normally in this tumultuous year. The flow of new titles, across all genres, continued unabated and provided readers a safe haven for a troubled psyche. For avid readers, confined to homes and deprived of opportunities of external sources of leisure, it was a dream opportunity to work through pending piles and acquire fresh material.

But amid the host of autobiographies and biographies, examinations of political partisanship and their social effects, new looks at history and more as well as a wide array of fiction for all tastes and moods, the worst health crisis the world faced in over a cent...