there are some damn interesting titles posted here!

If you liked "The Art Of War" another great read is "Thick Face Black Heart"


This book is one of my all time favorites and complements The Art Of War perfectly :thumbsup

"48 Laws of Power" is a must. So is "The Prince."

The "success biz" is mainly a North American phenomena, tho do sell in much reduced numbers elsewhere. Not a bad biz as long as you get others to do the work and write shit Mr S.

Usually the titles say it all - greenbacks, power, "my dick is bigger", how to impressive your friends. Basically stuff that appeals where a personality is deficient - the book will give ya some cred in your life :winkwink:

And I thank everyone for the suggestions. Bump for the night crew. I have a lot of reading to do. :upsidedow

I'm a big Thomas Sowell fan as well. Right on!:thumbsup

I am going to purchase it today. Thank you. :thumbsup

"Hitler's Thirty Days to Power". ;-)

I read his book on "Basic Economics". Good primer.

Also read "Inside American Education". Didn't really like it.

ok lets not go that far. :1orglaugh

I am on it like white on rice. :thumbsup

That sounds like a good book...I'll add that to my reading list as well :thumbsup

Wow, lay off the crack pipe before posting, k?
That goes for making your sig too...

p.s. I read the Art of War way back and contrary to popular opinion, it was never designed to apply to all facets of your life. I love when you see CEOs etc proudly displaying this book in their office. A good sign the type of person you're dealing with ...

AOW is NOT about how to run a business, your life, marriage or anything else. It was written by a warlord on battle strategies a loooong time ago. And when people try to apply the theories to a corporate board room, it's a stretch to say the least.

Kevsh, can what book would you suggest? I was only reading the AOW at the time because pretty much I was in a war.

Following some of the advice on this thread I just read "The Richest Man in Babylon", cant say it added much to what I knew already but sure was a good reading for the nigth ;)

Care to elaborate your idea about the book please?

If you do like the war genre, try A Man Called Intrepid - the inside story on the espionage behind WWII. Great read.

For something that just has to be fiction, except it's all true, try Killing Pablo. It's a first-hand account of tracking down the notorious drug cartel boss Pablo Escobar. Literally, a cant-put-it-down type of book. Shocking at just how powerful he was and how scary it must have been (and still is?) to live in that part of the world.

Completely agree with you. A more modern general treatment and philosophy of war is "On War" by Clausewitz. Still a few hundred years old. An excellent read for those interested in such things. I imagine someone could also interpret Clausewitz' book in the same symbolic way that they do when they read Sun Tzu.

Looks really good. Just added it to my next Amazon order.

Good to Great
Fast Food Nation
are two that I wanna pick up for myself next.

From memory, sorry, it was too long ago ... but here's a blurb from Wikipedia on it's use outside the military world. Note that this only became "fashionable" in the 80s and as such, it was quickly dissected into almost every part of life, not just corporate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art...e_the_military

My point was simply that it was written for military application. Anyone who tries to apply it to other parts of life (business, etc.) is reading something that isn't there.

Now if there are some similarities between strategies on the battle field and those in the corporate world, it is purely because as humans we tend to react the same in similar situations. (On the battlefield, a huge army approaches a lone man, he's likely to run. If Walmart opens shop beside a small mom-and-pop, he's likely to close his doors) ..

Does the owner of the mom-and-pop need to read Art of War to figure that out? Or was it natural instinct? Could he have better prepared for this by reading the book ...

As I mentioned, I needed the AOW at the time because of the situation I was in. I did find that is does help in general life. Thank you for the suggestions. I will be reading alot the days ahead. lol

Now I am searching for "The Book." Not fiction, real life. The book that grabbed you by the nuts and wouldnt let go until you flipped its last page. The book that made a big change in your life, etc. And no I am not about the self help books. If that were the case I would join the Oprah book club. :1orglaugh

Good book. I'm gonna read "Built to Last" one of these days.

Ahh, here are two of mine:

"Influence" by Cialdini
"What do you care what other people think?" by Richard Feynman

This is a little different to the rest of the suggestions here, but the nerds amongst us will no doubt be kicking themselves THEY didn't suggest it.

The book you have to read is known in common parlance as GEB, or more formally, Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid.

The linked article will expand on the content of this book, but to summarize it for you, if you take time to really read and understand GEB, everything you know about life itself will change. A pretty bold claim, but absolutely true nonetheless.

A warning: GEB is heavy going. Seriously. It's not a book to be taken lightly. There are courses at universities that dedicate an entire year to reading and studying this book. You, of course, don't need to take that long to read it, but when you're reading it, you're going to have to concentrate, and anything you don't understand, go back over. The author is remarkably adept at explaining some seriously complex shit in understandable terms, but even still, you're dealing with shit like set theory, mind-fucking paradoxes, isomorphism and the very nature of consciousness itself, from a mathematical perspective. Of course, if you make the effort and do get through it all, it will be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life, and as I already mentioned, your outlook on *everything* will change, not because it's full of mystical and spiritual wonder, but because goddamn, this book explains the fucking universe, and lets you in on the secret.

Man, I LOVE that book.

Okay,

I am new, but I'll try to help, I may put the wrong book names here cause I am not american and the Titles may be different where I live, anyway...

-The Book of the Five Rings (As already said)

-The Prince (try to look for the one with Napoleons opnion, yes it exists, and I have a copy)

-Gates of Fire (tells the story of the Battle of Termophilae, it can be aplyed to lie a little)

-Stupid White Man (Michael Moore is great)

-Why Do men make sex and women make love? (Again it may be the wrong title in english, but I will try to look for the autors, Its a GREAT book to understand why man and women r so different, really awesome.)

-Mein Kampf(If u get past all the nazy crap it's a great book about determination)

-The Voice of Fire (Alan Moore is the king of Kings, really)

Okay, there r more books, but I am gonna look for it's english titles for you and bring em up soon, if u r into comics, there r some really great graphic novels u shuld look up:

-V for Vendetta - Alan Moore

-Watchmen - Alan Moore

-Miraclemen - Alan Moore

I am only bringing up those that can help in some aspects of life, not everything that comes into my mind as you might be thinking, hehehe.

Good Luck mate,

Xumeroth

I am so glad you posted this. Thanks a bunch! :thumbsup

Thanks bud. :thumbsup

No problem mate,

But following the same riteria as the GEB over there, you have to take a look at Jorge Luis Borges books, I would begin with "the Aleph"
Seriously, your IQ will go up like 30 points after reading his books.

Stephen Hawkings is nice also, u should try it.

An IQ boost wont hurt anybody. lol I see you are in Brasil. Hope to visit there someday. :)

Anytime,

We will drink a beer or two when u come.

There is a 3 part documentary based on that book. Quite good.

Haven't seen anybody mention...

"Getting to Yes" by Roger Fisher and William Ury

For 7.95 - the advice and suggestions most of which are common sense but work as great reminders has probably created more wealth and solved more problems than any other book. It's also the most cited/referenced book by negotiating professionals - it'll help resolve conflict in all of your relationships from romantic to work to family and beyond.

Very interesting indeed. I will be looking into it. Thanks! :thumbsup

http://www.boundless.org/2001/depart.../a0000588.html

http://www.boundless.org/2001/images...reud_image.jpg

Didn't he write mostly in Spanish? Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not really all that familiar with his work. Translations are a funny thing. All too often a language will have a concept that simply doesn't have an equivalent in another language. Good translations usually involve the author themselves, allowing them the opportunity to reword (in presumably a more translatable way) their original idea.

Indeed he wrote all of his books in spanish, but I am sure the translations to english would not be that tough, I am from Brasil and I can translate most everything to english with no problems, considering that spanish is not tht different from protuguese I guess it would not be that bad. Although reading a book at the author original language is a new experience altogether. i.e: Frankenstein and Silmarillion.

read through two books already. anybody have anymore suggestions?

Which ones u read?

The Art Of Peace

"The Prince", "Getting to yes." And now I started on the "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."

I do not want to stop. I need good reads. If anyone can give some more input. It would be sincerely appreciated.

Nah, you can get that out of the "Art of War" if you read it deeply. :winkwink:

There is about 100 good books on this thread alone, chose some more of them.

I have bought most of them that would pertain to what I need. That is why I am asking for more. Nothing else. Just need some good help, from great people. Thank you GFY. :thumbsup

Khalil gibran.....The Prophet.

Carl Sagan....Demon Haunted World

Stephen Hhawking.....A breif history of time

Marquis De sade.....Julliette

Sun Tzu is some good light reading lol!

If you would have read the entire post. You would have seen that I was in a time in my life that I needed that book. Now time to move on. I want real books that apply to real life. :thumbsup

if you really wanna get in depth...try

Anthropic Bias: Observational selection effects in philosophy and science by Nick bostrom.:thumbsup

Its not something I will need a PHD to get through is it? :1orglaugh But hey, I am a deep person. So yes I am interested.