If you are a fan of Japan 🇯🇵, Japanese history, samurai or just a good novel, then I suggest reading Miyamoto Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa.
It is a novelized recount about the life of Japan’s 🇯🇵 greatest swordsman & it starts out with (slight spoiler warning)..
..the ending of an epic battle! What I loved about this book is that it highlights the cunning of battle tactics of a swordsman at a time crossbows & hand guns were beginning to enter history.
Tactics on how to fight a group, when to draw a weapon, how to avoid trouble & how to engage close friends trying to kill you (yeah, it gets really crazy!).
This book is not without controversy as there are some scenes/events that take place where you will hate Musashi (I will not spoil that here).
But overall the book does a great job of humanizing a legend, one who mastered & popularized two sword fighting techniques (ironically in the middle of a battle! Sheesh!).
Sword fighting aside, there is also some excellent philosophy discussed, which I will not get into much here. A great read if you are into books—provided you can stomach the violence (there is a lot!!!).