A Book of Five Rings first struck me as filled with mostly obvious wisdom, but I realized on further reflection that these principles that had come to me from many sources in my life stemmed, in part, from Musashi. Not that he was the first or only one to shuck off tradition and pursue his discipline with an open mind and a keen eye, but he was a seminal figure in distilling the essence of eastern wisdom from the centuries of dogmatic baggage. You probably won’t find yourself jumping off of the couch to make radical changes to your life after reading something in this book (though you might) but it contains the sort of subtle and profound advice that bears hearing over and over again so that one can come to a more profound and subtle understanding of life, the universe and everything.