For GATE examination it's better that you prefer from a group of text books whic h you have

gone through your in Engineering Standards.It's better that you go th rough standard books rather than preferring a single guide.Some of the text book s which you can prefer are:Enginnering Thermodynamics: PK Nag IC Engine: ML Mathur and RP Sharma Gas Turbine and Propulsive Systems: PR Khajuria & SP Dubey Fluid Mechanics: Modi & Seth, RK Bansal Compressible Flow: SM Yahya Heat and Mass Transfer: JP Hollman, RC Sachdeva Refrigeration and Air Conditioning: CP Arora, Domkundwar Fluid Machinery: Jagdish Lal, RK Bansal Theory of Machines: RS Khurmi, Malik & Ghosh Mechanical Vibration: Grover Machine Design: Shigley, VB Bhandari Material Science: WD Callister, IP Singh Production Engineering: Kalpkjian Schmid, Amitabh Ghosh & AK Malik Industrial Engineering: O P Khanna, Buffa & Sarin Operations Research: Kanti Swarup Strength of Materials: Gere & Timoshenko, BC unamia, Sadhu Singh Books of RK Bansal, O P Kanna and RS Khurmi are mostly preferred in various Univ ersities across India.Some of these text books mentioned above have bits mention ed for each chapter in the ending.Going through those bits from each chapter wil l help you for GATE as well as other exams like IES.Maintain formulas, short-cut s and tips/tricks in notes so that you can solve problems easily well this can b e gained only by practice.You can even prefer G.K Publishers book which may help you in solving bits in a simpler way. Source: http://entrance-exam.net/forum/general-discussion/list-books-mechanicalengineering-gate-preparation-363499.html#ixzz1cl3rOQc8