Have you ever had a book on your shelves for years and you keep telling yourself “I’ll read it eventually”? The book somehow survives several moves and purges of your library, and you can’t even remember when you got it, but you refuse to get rid of it because “it’s a classic!”. Well, I have about a dozen of those, but this is probably the oldest of that collection. To my credit, I spent near a month in China when I was 16, and have been mildly obsessed with Asian cultures ever since.
The Art of War was published roughly 500 BC, though it’s sort of uncertain the exact date, or even if Sun Tzu was the only author. However, the text, in various versions has been used for centuries to train and guide troops, both in Eastern and Western armies. The text has become standard reading for various military organizations and has inspired other works, such as Mao Tse-Tung’s On Guerrilla Warfare and T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Not only has the book been quotes to leading certain entities to victory in battle, it’s been used for the strategy of business, sports, and law. In fact, it has even impacted electronic sports (eSports) as pointed out by MIT grad David Sirlin in his book “Play to Win”.
Library of 1000 Books 