Beware, ye who enter. These are the kind of books I like. They can get pretty dense and pretty obscure. But if you're game, follow me ... WARFARE, ANCIENT AND MODERN To War With Whitaker, the Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly 1939-45 When Lt. The Honourable Dan Ranfurly went off to war, his wife Hermione followed. (So did Whitaker, Dan's faithful valet.) Young Lady Ranfurly, whose only marketable skill was a fair hand at the typewriter, talked her way into various clerical and embassy jobs in Cairo and the Middle East, while her young officer husband fought in the desert, got captured by the Afrika Korps, etc. There's not a dollop of sex in this book, yet it remains one of the great documents of romance, just because of all the hell Hermione goes through to be within a hundred miles of her beloved Dan. When at last they rush into each other's arms for a fleeting moment on a railway platform and she writes, "Happiness is being together," there wasn't a dry eye in my house. Alamein to Zem Zem by Keith Douglas Douglas was a poet fresh out of Oxford who served (and was killed) with the armoured forces under Montgomery when the British finally overcome Rommel after years of being out-ranged, out-gunned and out-generaled. Douglas' keen and jaundiced eye misses little. This isn't the most polished book but it is immediate and authentic as hell. Desert War, the North African Campaign 1940-1943 by Alan Moorehead Simply indispensable. Classic stuff by the Aussie war correspondent who could scribble a note on a cocktail napkin and make it fascinating. See also his African Trilogy. Eastern Approaches by Fitzroy Maclean You would think, being a novelist, that I would like to read novels. But I much prefer memoirs. I love the characters of the writers, particularly when they're not professionals. Fitzroy Maclean was stuck in the Foreign Service on the brink of WWII and wanted to go to war; the only way the government would let him was if he became a Member of Parliament. So he did. It gets better from there, including desert service with the SAS and all kinds of mad adventures in the Balkans, the Orient, Afghanistan. Brazen Chariots by Maj. Robert Crisp A bit hard to find but worth it if you've ever wondered what it's like to fight tank battles in the North African desert. Terrific first-person non-fiction about the British Seventh Armoured Division dueling Rommel and the Afrika Korps in WWII. What I love about books like these is not just the "ripping yarn" aspect or the vivid details or the sense of absolute authenticity and authority, all of which are here in spades, but the feeling you get for the man himself. Both this book and the following one by Cyril Joly (Crisp and Joly were friends) let you into the minds and hearts of these tremendously admirable, flesh-and-blood humans, with their senses of humor, despair, everything. Take These Men by Lt. Col. Cyril Joly You'll have to go way back in the stacks to find this one, but again it's worth the trip. Vividly told and superbly detailed account of the British in North Africa from '40 to '42, fighting first the Italians and then Rommel and Panzerarmee Afrika. I love these self-effacing Englishmen, who in real-life performed prodigies of courage and endurance and yet recount the tale with understated yet passionate brilliance. Like Brazen Chariots, you read this book and wish you could shake hands with the author and say, "Thank you." The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer Possibly the best book to come out of World War II. Horrific, ghastly, true-life memoir of a young German infantryman and his kamaraden as they fall back, back, back against the unstoppable tide of the Russian Army, '43-'45. Lost Victories by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein Another classic. The same story as told above by Guy Sajer, but from the opposite end of the food chain: the supreme German brass. Von Manstein's private confrontations with Hitler are alone worth the price of the book. Sand, Wind and War by Ralph Bagnold The founder of WWII's legendary Long Range Desert Group tells his life story, including all kinds of interesting and unexpected dimensions (his sister wrote National Velvet) including the tale of his landmark scientific paper, "The Physics of Blown Sand." Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab Ripping, high-testosterone (and true) yarn of a British SAS patrol dropped behind the lines during the first Gulf War, told by its leader, the most decorated soldier in the Brit army as of his discharge in '93. The movie stars Sean Bean. Attacks by Erwin Rommel The Desert Fox before he was the Desert Fox. Rommel recounts his experiences as a young infantry officer in World War I. Studied to this day by our army and Marines, this book gives new meaning to the phrase "balls of steel." Boyd: the Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram Fascinating true saga of the misunderstood genius who introduced the concept of Maneuver Warfare to the contemporary armed services--and paid the price. The Sling and the Stone by Col. T.X. Hammes, USMC Am I favoring Marines? Not without cause, with this outstanding contemporary intro to the concept of Fourth Generation Warfare, the kind of post-guerrilla conflict our troops are fighting now -- and are likely to keep fighting for decades to come. www.spartan-world.de The Indispensable Spartan Website - My friend Paul Houston in England has put together Sparta World, a work-in-progress website for Spartaphiles and aficionadoes of all things Spartans. The site is interesting in and of itself (and constantly evolving) and also a great jumping-off point and clearinghouse for re-enactor groups, hoplite fighters, artists, writers, and all other contemporary upholders of the Lakedaemonian tradition and ethos -- and just for the fun of it. Paul invites all interested groups and individuals to contact him, link to the site, and network with their "Peers." Blood Stripes: The Grunt's View of the War in Iraq by USMC Capt. David Danelo with a Foreword by Mr. Pressfield Blood Stripes is Danelo's account of infantry actions fought by Marines in Fallujah and Husaybah in 2004, recounted from the point of view of NCOs he knew and fought alongside. Great stuff! For more, see www.bloodstripesbook.com. One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer by Capt. Nate Fick, USMC The Iraq War by a Dartmouth-educated Recon Marine who was in the first wave into Baghdad. Lean, vivid, fair-minded, by a born writer from whom we will be hearing much more. ON WRITING Bambi versus Godzilla; On the Nature, Purpose and Practice of the Movie Business by David Mamet Technically this isn't a book about writing. It's about Tinseltown and David Mamet's love-hate relationship with it. But, along with Mamet's witty and cantankerous evisceration of show biz, Bambi delivers masterly and extremely useful insights on getting movies made, surviving criticism, paying the rent and in general surviving Hollywood while retaining some scrap of sanity and integrity. Mamet is not just any writer. When he takes on a subject, you get it in context succeeding context -- commercial, aesthetic, moral, ethical, legal, Talmudic, Tantric and Vedic. It's like reading Thucydides if he'd loaded his stuff into a '65 Mustang and split for the Coast. Don't miss two other recent Mamet classics: True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor... and Three Uses of the Knife, Mamet's ruminations on how everything is drama (and if it isn't, we make it into drama) and what that means. Robert McKee Story Seminar I always say that McKee is not only the best teacher of writing I've ever seen, but the best teacher of anything. I've taken this three-day intensive twice and I'll take it again. Yes, McKee has been spoofed (in the movie Adaptation) and lionized (in a New Yorker profile.) But that's because he's the best. Full disclosure: McKee and Pressfield are friends. McKee wrote the Foreword for The War of Art. McKee teaches this class in cities all over the U.S. and Europe, even as far away as Israel and Singapore. Check www.mckeestory.com for dates and prices. Story by Robert McKee The book that goes with the seminar. Terrific for writers in all media. But take the "live" McKee first. You'll get more out of the book if you've heard the man deliver his stuff in-person. Journal of a Novel by John Steinbeck When he was writing East of Eden, Steinbeck kept a journal -- just a few pages each morning, which he'd scribble as a kind of warm-up before turning to the actual manuscript. Fascinating insights into the writer's life, inside and outside the covers of a book. Ernest Hemingway on Writing edited by Larry W. Phillips Papa never actually sat down and wrote a book about writing. Rather, editor Larry Phillips has compiled 140 pages of hard-core Hemingwayisms from the author's books, stories, and letters. Great material, particularly the fragments of correspondence to Scott Fitzgerald. The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman As an agent and editor, Noah Lukeman read thousands of manuscripts from aspiring writers. He got to where he could tell in the first five pages if a submission was worth his time. In this gem of a book, he tells you the most common mistakes writers make -- and how to eradicate them from your manuscript. How To Be Inspired by Nick Williams A no-nonsense how-to manual and psych-yourself-up kit, for those of us who sometimes need a swift kick in the butt to get us going. GOLF Golf in the Kingdom by Michael Murphy Best book ever on golf and spirituality. Packed with wit and inventiveness, not at all full of itself, Kingdom is a yarn you can read over and over. Shivas Irons is probably the greatest fictional golf creation, short of Carl in Caddyshack. And Michael Murphy is erudite. Do you know the scene in Plato's Symposium when Alcibiades arrives, drunk, at the dinner party and enters to make a speech in praise of Socrates? Well, Murphy knocks this off to brilliant effect with a speech in praise of Shivas -- and never even winks at his readers. Harvey Penick's Little Red Book If authenticity is a virtue, this is the supreme manifestation of it. Harvey Penick and John Wooden both radiate that quality of true-blue excellence and generosity, which explains why both have produced so many champions and are both so revered by all who knew them. Simply sensational. The Cosmic Laws of Golf by Printer Bowler Full disclosure: young Printer is a dear friend. This is a slender volume that goes deep, from an officer during the Vietnam War who has lived a full and profoundly observed life and distilled therefrom many lessons that go beyond the front nine or the back. It'll help your golf game too. Golf Is My Game by Robert Tyre (Bobby) Jones In my opinion, the best golf book ever written. Kind of a hodge-podge actually, with tips and lessons mixed in with autobiography, the story of the Grand Slam, and even a chapter called "The Stymie -- Let's Have It Back!" But like so many memoirs by great men and women who aren't professional writers, it rings true as gold, page after page. If Bobby wants the stymie back, I'm all for it. The Secret of Hogan's Swing by Tom Bertrand and Printer Bowler Golfing cognoscenti remember the late John Schlee's student-mentor relationship with Ben Hogan that, alas, ended with both their deaths. Were Hogan's final secrets lost? No, because Schlee passed them on to celebrated San Diego teaching pro Tom Bertrand. Here, working with Printer Bowler (author of the excellent Cosmic Laws of Golf), Bertrand delivers to us the master's last secrets on pronation/supination, the left hip, the right knee, and much more -- plus fascinating psychological nuggets on competition and the keys to victory. Hogan's concept of "the moving wall" alone is worth the price of the book. A must-read for Hogan fans and golfing aficianados of all kinds. FAVORITE FICTION OF LAST FIFTY YEARS The Moviegoer by Walker Percy National Book Award winner 1963. New Orleans stockbroker Binx Bolling (one of the great characters of contemporary fiction) battles Kierkegaardian despair with the help of his cousin Kate, an ultra-dry sense of humor, and a compulsion for going to the movies. A close second: The Seed and the Sower by Laurens van der Post World War II classic by the South African master. A tale of two brothers, a Japanese prison camp, and the soul's triumph over suffering and isolation. CLASSICAL GREECE Penguin Paperbacks and the Loeb Classical Library (which gives the text in Greek on one page and in English on the facing) are the indispensable sources. Pick any and you can't go wrong. But here are the must-reads: Plutarch's Lives Easiest to read of all "the sources." Short bios, packed with anecdote and wisdom, of every great man of the Classical era. Plutarch wrote them in pairs, juxtaposing Caesar to Alexander, Alcibiades to Coriolanus, that sort of thing. My faves: Lycurgus, Solon, Themistocles, Alcibiades, Alexander. The Histories by Herodotus (Penguin paperbacks, translated by Aubrey de Selincourt) The book "the English Patient" was carrying. Funny, personal, and very entertaining, this book recounts the history of the clashes between Greeks and Persians, out of which arose the modern world. The battle of Thermopylae is in here, and Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea, plus dozens of zany, fascinating flashes into ancient life. History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (Penguin paperbacks, translated by Rex Warner) Tough sledding because of the dense but absolutely brilliant prose (which has been misinterpreted criminally in my view by the crop of U.S. neo-cons currently in power.) May be the greatest book on war and human nature ever written. Timeless. The Landmark Thucydides by Robert B. Strassler A different but also excellent translation -- but this one comes with maps, dozens and dozens, down to postage-stamp sizes on almost every page. They help. The Symposium by Plato (Penguin paperback, translated by Walter Hamilton) Hard to pick only one work from this great writer, thinker, and wrestler (Plato was his nickname, meaning "broad-shouldered") and protégé of Socrates, but this is it. A night of gentlemen's conversation, drunk and sober, at Athens in its glory days, highlighted by soliloquys "in praise of Love" by Aristophanes, Alcibiades, Agathon, and Socrates. Truman Capote wishes he threw a party like this. The Persian Expedition by Xenophon (Penguin paperback, translated by Rex Warner) Ten thousand Greek mercenaries follow Cyrus the Younger three months' march into the wilds of Persia, then lose the battle they came to fight. Xenophon was there as a young officer. His tale of the Greeks' long and harrowing retreat against the hordes determined to obliterate them is justifiably immortal. Hollywood's "The Warriors," about a street gang from Brooklyn, was cleverly knocked off from this. The Last Days of Socrates by Plato Okay okay, two works by Plato. This Penguin paperback, translated by Hugh Tredennick, compiles four dialogues into an organic whole narrating the trial, conviction, and death by hemlock of Socrates. Deep stuff on the subject of dying. SPARTANS AND ATHENIANS Plutarch on Sparta, translated by Richard J.A. Talbert From Penguin paperbacks, the best one-book intro to Sparta and Spartan thought. Several of Plutarch's Lives of famous Spartans, plus Sayings of the Spartans and Sayings of the Spartan Women. Start here. The Ambition to Rule by Steven Forde, Ph.D. Brilliant scholarly dissertation on the mind-set of Alcibiades and the politics of imperialism in ancient Athens. You've gotta be a real aficionado to find this book (try your local college libe) and get through it. But it will reward the serious reader. I stole all kinds of goodies from Forde for Tides of War. The Education of Cyrus (aka the Cyropaedia) by Xenophon (Loeb Library, two volumes, translated by Walter Miller) Though this book purports to narrate the upbringing and conquests of the great Persian king, in truth the society Xenophon describes is that of Sparta (no outsider knew it better than he), complete with "peers," good manners at the dinner table, and why a true warrior never urinates on campaign.* * Because he should have eliminated excess water entirely by sweating. The Spartans by Paul Cartledge Chairman of the Classics faculty at Cambridge, Cartledge is the expert, from whom I have also stolen major tonnage. Here's he's not writing an exhaustive, all-inclusive tome, but hitting the high spots with great depth, if you know what I mean. The Last Days of Athens by Plutarch, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert This Penquin paperback assembles the Lives of all the major players in Athens' rise and fall -- Theseus, Solon, Themistocles, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lysander. A brilliant editorial concept, The Last Days can be pretty scary when you read-in the parallels to the contemporary United States. The Spartan Army by J.F. Lazenby Another hard-to-track-down work (try the Reference Librarian) that may lack the readable touch, but is crammed with great esoteric stuff like what the Spartans called a platoon leader [an enomotarch. ] Only for true Sparta fanatics. The Athenian Trireme by Morrison, Coates, and Rankov Triremes were the famous ancient warships with three banks of oars. The problem: no one of the past 1500 years knew how the old guys did it. All design and engineering has been lost. The authors of this book play detective, scouring ancient texts, coins, carvings, and using their own imaginations. They figure it out, then build a trireme of their own. It works! Fascinating. Trials from Classical Athens by Christopher Carey Still extant are the actual lawyer's arguments from a number of famous ancient cases. Trust me, Johnny Cochrane had nothing on these slick Athenian legal eagles. ALEXANDER THE GREAT Should the reader, curious about Alexander, start with the ancient texts or with modern biographies? My vote is for the old school. I'd pick up first: The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian This is the Penguin paperback, translated by Aubrey de Selincourt with an intro by J.R. Hamilton, one of the best Alexander scholars. It's the most readable and really gives you a sense of what all the fuss is about. Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian Same book, different title, from the Loeb Classical Library (in two volumes) translated by another top scholar, P.A. Brunt. Not as contemporary a read as de Selincourt's but very much the real deal. History of Alexander by Quintus Curtius (Loeb Library, translated by J.C. Rolfe) Along with the Alexander sections of Diodorus Siculus' Library of History, this is the other main ancient source. Interesting how the same incidents are narrated from wholly different points of view, new material added, crucial stuff left out. You can see why it's so hard to get a handle on the real Alexander. Life of Alexander by Plutarch Under thirty pages, but crammed with anecdote and insight, from a far greater writer than Arrian or Curtius. But skewed, too, in its own way. Great stuff. MODERN ALEXANDER BOOKS For some reason, the study of Alexander has produced a boatload of excellent and very readable contemporary scholarship. The most famous at the moment, and justifiably so, is Robin Lane Fox's Alexander the Great. But don't discount works (almost all of which are titled Alexander the Great or some variation thereof) by these other outstanding classicists: P.A. Brunt, Paul Cartledge, Peter Connolly, A.M. Devine, Theodore Dodge, Peter Green, G.T. Griffith, George Grote, J.R. Hamilton, B.H. Liddell Hart, Waldemar Heckel, E.W. Marsden, R.D. Milns, Sir Aurel Stein, John Warry, Benjamin Wheeler and Ulrich Wilcken. My favorites: Alexander the Great and The Genius of Alexander the Great (two books) by N.G.L. Hammond. I just like Hammond's re-imagining of Alexander. His speculations ring true to me. The Generalship of Alexander the Great by J.F.C. Fuller Shrewd insights into how Alexander fought and how his principles fit into the broader picture of warfare over the centuries. By one of the greatest military historians of our time or any other. Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army by Donald Engels Military men say that amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics. If so, this book is pure pro. Engels explores such questions as, "How many mules can carry how many pounds for how many miles at what speed before they completely crap out?" I love this stuff. AND OF COURSE MARY RENAULT Without The Persian Boy and Fire From Heaven, I wouldn't be writing at all. These novels of Alexander inspired me years ago when I first read them -- and they still read great today. Mary Renault also wrote an interesting non-fiction book, The Spirit of Alexander. MISSING, MISSING, MISSING I know I've left out the Iliad and the Odyssey and all the great plays. With luck, we'll get to them later. BUSINESS AND MOTIVATION The Genius Network Series, interviews by Joe Polish Joe is a marketing guru out of Tempe, AZ, who has put together a series of CD interviews with entrepreneurs, authors, coaches, marketeers and interesting people of all stripes. (Fair disclosure: he interviewed me.) Google genius network or joe polish and see if any of his titles strikes your fancy. My pick: any interview with "strategic coach" Dan Sullivan. Good to Great by Jim Collins The second-favorite book (after Marcus Aurelius' Meditations) of Marine general Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis, who led Marines in Afghanistan and commanded the First Marine Division in Iraq. Brilliant, no-nonsense insights into how organizations succeed ... and fail. Mystery of Making It by Jack White Jack White was the first state artist of Texas. But his book isn't about art, it's about the business of art. (He has two others, on Selling Art and on Self-Promotion). You have to download these for twenty-odd bucks from www.senkarikstuff.com; they're not available in hard copy. Terrific stuff, well worth the paper and toner.