Question

Any good books about Shiva?

Answer

Since you want to learn more about Shiva, there are many places you can start. I don't know your level of background, but if you know nothing at all you may want to start by reading the comic book series Amar Chitra Katha, which tells lots of stories of Shiva. Here are a few relevant Amar Chitra Katha comics, in no particular order:

  1. Tales of Shiva - stories of how Shiva has helped various devotees of his

  2. Sati and Shiva - the story of Shiva's first wife and her tragic death

  3. Shiva Parvati - the story of how Shiva remarried the next birth of Sati

  4. Kartikeyya - the story of Shiva's six-headed son, born to defeat a powerful demon

  5. Ganesha - the story of Parvati's son and how he got an elephant head

It looks like you can buy all five comics here. Or if you prefer to buy them in ebook form, check out the Amar Chitra Katha app. I can also tell you more Shiva-related Amar Chitra Kathas if you're interested.

If you don't like reading comic books, you can read the excellent book "Shiva - An Introduction" by Devdutt Pattanaik. It contains lots of information and stories about Shiva, both famous and obscure. It's very easy to read and chock-full of famous artwork and statues featuring Shiva. And it's written by the author of "Jaya", the popular illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata. Note that Pattanaik likes to take some artistic license with the stories (and so does Amar Chitra Katha to some extent), but for the most part it's accurate and should give you a good idea of who Shiva is and what he's done.

And then on the other extreme, if you already know the stories of Shiva and you're seeking even more information and details, then you can of course read Hindu scripture itself, specifically the Shiva Purana, a four-volume work you can get here. (The volumes are available online as well, but it's hard to access them so I may write a question and answer about them later.) There are also some stories of Shiva in the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana. But in any case I doubt you're looking for Hindu scriptures.

Note: “The question: Any good books about Shiva?” is licensed by Stack Exchange Inc (https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/); user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA.