A Book of Five Rings

The Strategy of Musashi

By: Miyamoto Musashi

Narrated by: Alec Sand

Legendary 17th century swordsman Miyamoto Musashi’s exposition of sword fighting, strategy and Zen philosophy. Required reading for any martial artist, business person or student of strategy. Includes the one hour Zen inspired soundtrack The Mysterious Sound of Wind in the Bamboo. Performed on authentic Japanese instruments.

©2009 trout lake media (P)2009 Trout Lake Media

What I expected

If you could sum up A Book of Five Rings in three words, what would they be?

Duty- Honor- Loyalty

What did you like best about this story?

I have read this before so knew what to expect. Listen/read with an open mind.

What about Alec Sand’s performance did you like?

He has the a good voice for narration

Deep Truths

This is one to keep coming back to. It’s so rich in truth and value that one or two passes will yield little. A undeniable classic.

Zen and Swordmanship

Though expressed in terms of war, this is a deep guide to right mind in all things

A'ight

Really nothing insightful. You can in a way apply everything he talked about in one way or another but just too specific to swordsmanship. Even then he would admit that he can't really explain it properly in the book and that it had to be researched further then practiced. I think it would be something insightful if you were truly attempting to become a great swordsman. I guess I was hoping for something in how he became a great swordsman, was he taught these ideas or did he learn them on his own? I would have liked to hear his examples for what he talked about. For example, he talked about how a longsword has limited reach and that if you get close it is disadvantageous, but then moves on. An example of he would react in a real world scenario would have been insightful. Also, when telling the reader that we must further research an idea he touched upon would benefit greatly by telling us how to do so, how would he do so? How did he acquire that knowledge that he can't explain to us? I have no doubt this man was a great swordsman, but this was not an insightful book. Overall, I would not recommend this book.

Stunning

I decided to get audible to listen to this, and I can't say how stunning it is. Applicable to life in many different ways.