Book recommendations

There's loads of books that get mentioned on this forum which sound really interesting, and it's sometimes hard to remember which thread they were in. I'd be really interested to get you guys' recommendations - martial arts, psychology, whatever.
Thanks.

So to start with, a couple of classics:

A Book of 5 Rings - Miyamoto Musashi

The Art of War - Sun Tzu

Hardcore self defense - C.R Jahn. Lots of good overall advice. Very down to earth and practical.


Meditations on Violence - Rory Miller. Great book. More about psychology and concepts in violence than technique and physical training


Contamporary knife targeting - Christopher Grosz and Michael Janich. Simply because it contains a revised and accurate timetable of death, as well as other good information.


The logic of steel - James Lafond. undertitled "a fighter's view of blade and shank encounters." Basically a load of case studies from knife attacks both from perspectives of stabed and stabee's as well as witnesses. A reality check.


Put 'em down, take 'em out - Don Pentecost. Basically the simplest and most brutal knife book out there. I got it back when it went for $17. These days I suspect it's out of print and costs more. But it's a damn good book for it's meager size.


Violence, blunders & fractured jaws - Marc "animal" MacYoung. He has many interesting books but this one mentions lots of psychological and social stuff you don't see talked about often. It all revolves around awareness and understanding environments and people around you. BTW add "a professional's guide to ending violence quickly" to that author.


Principles of personal defence - Jeff Cooper. the seven principles he lays out here seem to me like seven psychological characteristics that would be very central to a proper supra state: alertness, decisiveness, aggressiveness, speed, coolness, ruthlessness and surprise. He lays them out well and I think he has a way with words.


A guide to rational living - Albert Ellis. Simply a book on taking a second look at your thinking and taking rational control over your otherwise irrational thinking that seems instead to control you. Self-analysis and rational emotive behavioral therapy.


Making up the mind - Chris Frith. This book could easily be renamed "distort, delete, generalize" because that's what it is about. Except it's low on NLP and big on neurology and research, but easy reading nonetheless.


That's a few for now... BTW regarding the art of war, I found an edition that was released earlier this year called "the art of war, spirituality for conflict, by Thomas Hyunh. Which is basically an annotated and fleshed out version of the book. There are the original vague "Man who jumps off cliff, jumps to conclusion." stuff, and an explanation of how this relates to the world as you know it. Very good for people like me who just go "huh?"

You should be able to find all of this on amazon.

Marc Macyoung - Cheap Shots, Ambushes and other lessons (Violence, blunders and fractured jaws as mentioned is great, but more advanced, this one is more basic and better for beginners)

Alain Burrese - Hard Won Wisdom From The School Of Hard Knocks.

Those 2 books are what got me started years ago and I still really recommend them.

Richard Dimitri - In Total Defense Of The Self

Sammy Franco - When Seconds Count, Everyones Guide To Self Defense

Jerry Vancook - Real World Self Defense

Lee Morrison - Street Safe

Jamie O'keefe - What makes tough guys tough. (Interviews with guys like Geoff Thompson and other well known fighters about what makes people tough or not)

Thats the main ones, i've got a few more but those are a good beginning.

-Ben

Excellent list of suggestions gents! I'll be certain to pick some of those up, thanks !!

Here are a few I enjoyed recently on the historical side:

Alfred Hutton - Cold Steel-A practical treatise on the Sabre
Old Sword Play and systems of the fence

Barbara Holland - Gentlemens Blood-A History of Dueling

Erik Durschmied - From Armageddon to the Fall of Rome-How the Ancient Warlords Changed the World

Richard Cohen - By the Sword

And I obviously have to mention: Balisong: The Lethal Art of Filipino Knife Fighting featuring my teacher Sonny Umpad.

OK, OK it's true ...I'm interested in bladed weapons ...

HAGAKURE book of the samurai
48 LAWS OF POWER.. robert green. ( not about real fighting alot about mental power over others)

chulodog wrote:

HAGAKURE book of the samurai
48 LAWS OF POWER.. robert green. ( not about real fighting alot about mental power over others)

The 48 Laws of Power is a great book. He aslo wrote The 33 Strategies of War. Both highly recommended.

Anyone read this?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2004/nov/21/politics

masaaki hatsumi

still looking for his stuff. this thread brought it all back to me. i think i looked in amazon, etc... but couldn't find leads. Richie recommended it on an earlier thread. i'm still not giving up on it.

High Intensity workout ideas:
"Infinite Intensity" and "Never Gymless" by Ross Enamait.

Russell Sage wrote:

masaaki hatsumi

still looking for his stuff. this thread brought it all back to me. i think i looked in amazon, etc... but couldn't find leads. Richie recommended it on an earlier thread. i'm still not giving up on it.

Try this - http://www.bestwebbuys.com/Masaaki_Hatsumi-mcid_2382880.html?isrc=b-authorsearch