Musashi

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. Great for entertainment as well as enlightenment.

If you are adding Shogun then surely you also must add Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. A sprawling epic loosely based on history, with real historical people as characters

Musashi - This is the classic Samurai novel. The lessons about life and finding my path shaped me probably more than any book I've ever read. Extreme Ownership - As I have advanced in my career, it became clear that leadership and communication are the keys to success. EO (and related books by the same author) provides so many varied benefits, but the largest for me was to detach, check my ego, and control my emotions. Thinking in this manner has literally changed every relationship I have for the better.

Wish I read earlier: The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa The Story is breathtaking and the teachings are divine. It currently has the potential to change my life, i even marked some sentences and put tapes to important pages that concern my life.

Musashi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musashi_%28novel%29

If you do a search through HN, you'll find some really good recommendations. Read The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Fooled By Randomness is also good) if you want to peer into the mind of an investor. Read Hesse's Siddhartha if you're thinking along the lines of culture/religion/philosophy. Read a few Ayn Rand books if you like libertarianism and don't really care to relate to the characters. Read We by Yevgheny Zamyatin if you want an interesting allegory that metaphorically compares heaven to a dystopian dictatorship. Read Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins if you're very interested in the sciences. I remember Sebastian Marshall recommending Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa -- I'd recommend it too. It's pretty good, and I was especially interested since I've been doing marshal arts for over 10 years now. And read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! no matter how you think. It's fantastic. EDIT: More Books! I read these when I was in elementary school, but they still hold their value: The Giver by Lois Lowry if you want more dystopias. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery if you're feeling especially playful.

> I must say you really sold the Musashi book to me. Definitely going to buy it next time I buy books. Thanks. You're going to love it :) I damn near never guarantee someone is going to love a book, but I figure almost anyone here would. Everyone, literally everyone I'd recommended or gifted a copy of Musashi too is crazy about the book. At the risk of getting way ahead of myself, Taiko by the same author is quite good too, but larger in scope - more characters, more history, a bit more work but still a good story. If you really like Japan or Yoshikawa's writing style, check that out afterwards. But for now, you're in good hands with Musashi. Feel free to drop me an email if you've got thoughts as you're reading, my email is in my profile.

If you're talented and get frustrated with stupid people, you have to read "Musashi" by Eiji Yoshikawa. I mean, you have to. Musashi was one of the greatest (maybe the greatest) swordsman of all time. He invented a Japanese longblade/shortblade mixed style of swordsmanship, at one point fighting himself out of an ambush when he was attacked by over 30 men. He was undefeated in over 60 duels, including defeating arguably the second best swordsman in Japan at the time while fighting with a wooden oar he carved into a rough swordlike shape. Here's Musashi's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi The book by Eiji Yoshikawa is historical fiction - it's period accurate and follows all of Musashi's most well known story. It fills in some other details we don't know of Musashi's life - how he might have trained, some minor scuffles with bandits of the day, and it added a love story.…

A quick read is Wikipedia's summary of Miyamoto Musashi's "Book of Five Rings" - it's about Japanese swordsmanship in the early 1600's in a variety of situations: Full-on combat, a duel, outnumbered, with high/low ground, etc. It's strategic more than tactical, and if you like Sun Tzu you might dig it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Five_Rings The story of his life, "Musashi," is one of my favorite books of all time and has good strategic and philosophical discussion mixed in with some really riveting action and social commentary. Musashi had a lot of potential at a young age, but was extremely undisciplined and constantly had it out with the law, society, and people whose motivations he couldn't understand. The book chronicles him becoming the greatest swordsman in Japanese history. An incredible read, especially for anyone who was bright at young age but questioned a hell of a lot of society's rules. Amazon (no affiliate B.S., just a great book): http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/4770019572