| Art of War, Sun Tzu |
Very classic, you can read it to tell people that you've read it, but it also shows truths. I read it while George W. was invading Iraq and found it fascinating how relevant it was. |
| Taekwondo, Park Park and Gerard |
Textbook for all tkd students. This is invaluable as you go through all the coloured belt rankings. A good reference for WTF patterns. |
| The Tao of Jeet Kune Do |
This is actually the only book Bruce Lee wrote although there are other works attributed to him. |
| A Book of 5 Rings, Miyamoto Musashi |
The greatest Japanese swordsman of all time. A good but short treatise on battle. Insightful, and if you get a decent annoted version it will tell much of his interesting life. |
| Tao te Ching, Lau Tzu |
Classic Taoist philosophy. A slow read but good. One of "the 5 Chinese classics". |
| The Holy Man, Susan Trott |
20th century version of Taoist philosophy. An excellent gem. |
| Qi Gong for Health and Martial Arts, Dr Yang, Jwing Ming |
Contains complete forms, excellent for beginning to understand training your qi (pronounce chi, aka ki) |