Recommended Reading

 

 

These are all excellent books which we have found to be both useful and entertaining. They are in no particular order, although we have tried to arrange them into distinct categories. If you do not see one of your favorites listed here, it may simply be because we have not read it (we cannot recommend a book that we haven’t had opportunity to review).

 

Be advised, some of these books contain objectionable material which we do not necessarily agree with — you’ll just need to use your best judgement and "read between the lines" in order to find the hidden message. Be further advised, a few of the books which have outlandish (or offensive) titles actually are surprisingly well written — "Don’t judge a book by its cover!"

 

Many of these titles can be accessed via the "inter-library loan" (ILL) service available at many public (and university) libraries, or could be found via an out-of-print book search. Some can be ordered directly from Paladin, Loompanics, or LWC (see links), or you could have a local bookstore place the order for you. This is an incomplete listing, and shall be revised in the future.

 

 WARRIORSHIP:

Living the Martial Way — Maj. Forrest E. Morgan (Highly Recommended)

Dueling with O-sensei — Ellis Amdur (Highly Recommended)

The Craft of the Warrior — Robert L. Spencer (Highly Recommended)

The Secret Man — Frank Dux (Questionable, but an enjoyable read nonetheless)

In Search of the Warrior Spirit — Richard Strozzi Heckler

King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine — Robert Moore & Douglas Gillette

 

 SELF-DEFENSE:

Cheap Shots, Ambushes, and Other Lessons — Marc MacYoung (REQUIRED READING)

Black Medicine III: Low Blows — N. Mashiro, Ph.D (Highly Recommended)

A Bouncer’s Guide to Barroom Brawling — Peyton Quinn

Dead or Alive: The Choice is Yours — Geoff Thompson

The Truth About Self-Protection — Massad Ayoob

Playboy’s Book of Practical Self-Defense — Joe Hyams

Protecting the Gift — Gavin DeBecker (A great book that tells parents how better to protect their youngsters from predators) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Safe in the City — Marc MacYoung and Chris Pfouts (A politically incorrect guide to avoiding becoming a victim simply by using a bit of common sense)

 

 MARTIAL ARTS:

Combat Strategy — Junsado, The Way of the Warrior — Hanho (Highly Recommended)

Floor Fighting — Marc "Animal" MacYoung (Highly Recommended)

Fists, Wits, and a Wicked Right — Marc "Animal" MacYoung

War with Empty Hands — Lennox Cramer

Mental Training of a Warrior — Dr. John LaTourrette (More physical than mental, but still good)

Deadly Karate Blows: The Medical Implications — Brian Adams (Scholarly dissertation on the ramifications of 24 "deadly" moves, which shows that striking up under the nose is actually far less dangerous then attacking the collarbone! The anatomical illustrations are very well done. Definitely worth a look)

The Tao of Jeet Kune Do — Bruce Lee

The Filipino Martial Arts — Dan Inosanto

Pananandata — Amante Marinas

Attack Proof — John Perkins, Al Ridenhour, and Matt Kovsky

 

 IMPROVISED WEAPONRY:

Black Medicine II: Weapons at Hand — N. Mashiro, Ph.D (Highly Recommended)

Pool Cues, Beer Bottles, and Baseball Bats — Marc "Animal" MacYoung

Improvised Weapons of the Modern Ninja—Harold Jenks & Michael Brown   

Improvised Weapons in American Prisons — Jack Luger

 

 MISCELLANEOUS WEAPONRY:

Secrets of Street Survival — Israeli Style — Eugene Sockut (Highly Recommended)

Black Medicine IV: Equalizers — N. Mashiro, Ph.D

Brass Knuckle Bible — Fred Rexer Jr.

US Customs Unconventional Weapons "Lookout" Manual — Paladin Press

Weapons — The Diagram Group (Encyclopedic and profusely illustrated)

Hidden Weapons —  RWT Downloadable Book

 

 

 SHOOTING PEOPLE (A Reality Check):

In the Gravest Extreme — Massad Ayoob (Highly Recommended)

Lead Poisoning: 25 True Stories from the Wrong End of a Gun — Chris Pfouts

Armed and Female — Paxton Quigley (A good introduction to the subject matter, primarily written for women considering handgun ownership)

 

 KNIFEFIGHTING (Also Realistic):

Knives, Knife Fighting, and Related Hassles — Marc MacYoung (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

The Logic of Steel: A Fighter’s View of Blade and Shank Encounters — James LaFond

Modern Knife Combat: The Training of a Knife Fighter — Greg Walker

Balisong: Iron Butterfly — Cacoy "Boy" Hernandez (Reads like a memoir)

Sevillian Steel — James Loriega (The history and use of the navaja, which is very similar to the Vaquero Grande)

Master of the Blade — Richard Ryan (Despite the cocky arrogance of the author, this could very well be the best book available on the subject. Superb illustrations. Mister Ryan also has utilized a cut-out blade and digital imaging to give brutal realism to several of the black & white photographs! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)

 

 EVASIVE DRIVING:

Drive to Survive — Curt Rich (Highly Recommended)

Getaway! — Ronald George Eriksen II

Evasive Driving —  T.J. Steele (Available free at our site as a downloadable book)

 

 PROTECTION DOGS:

Dog Logic: Rapport Based Training — Joel M. McMains (Highly Recommended)

Manstopper!: Training a Canine Guardian — Joel M. McMains (Advanced handlers only)

Protection Dogs —  RWT Downloadable Book

 

 SURVIVAL:

Survive Safely Anywhere: The SAS Guide to Survival — John "Lofty" Wiseman

Fieldbook — Boy Scouts of America

Contingency Cannibalism — Shiguro Takada (Just kidding! However, this book is hilarious, and we recommend it solely on that basis)

 

 FIRST-AID:

US Army Special Forces Medical Handbook (ST 31-91B) — U.S. Army

Advanced First-Aid & Emergency Care — American Red Cross

Ditch Medicine — Hugh L. Coffee (An outstanding treatise on advanced field procedures. Invaluable data for trained medics, but unfortunately of only limited use to the layman. Required reading for all EMTs)

 

 POLICE SCIENCE (TACTICS):

Street Survival — Charles Remsberg (Caliber Press will only sell to Law Enforcement personnel)

The Tactical Edge: Surviving High Risk Patrol — Charles Remsberg (see above)

Stressfire — Massad Ayoob

Boobytrap Identification and Response Guide for Law Enforcement — Tony L. Jones

 

 POLICE SCIENCE (ANECDOTES):

What Cops Know — Connie Fletcher

Pure Cop — Connie Fletcher

Cops — Mark Baker

Cop World: Inside an American Police Force — James McClure

Vice Cop — Bill McCarthy

 

 MILITARY SCIENCE (TACTICS):

McAleese’s Fighting Manual: The Definitive Soldier’s Handbook — Peter McAleese

Total Resistance — Major H. von Dach (An official manual from the Swiss Army)

The Scout — Ion L. Idriess

Combat Survival (SAS Course Notes) — Paladin Press

Manual of the Mercenary Soldier — Paul Balor (Don’t let the title fool you)

Strike Back at Terror — John Cabot

Project Delta: US Special Forces Vietnam Recon Manual — Paladin Press

 

MILITARY SCIENCE (HISTORY / ANALYSIS):

Acts of War: The Behavior of Men in Battle — Richard Holmes

On Killing — Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

The Real Team — Richard Marcinko

SOG: The Secret War of America’s Commandos in Vietnam — John L. Plaster

Spetsnaz — Viktor Suvorov

The Art of War — Sun Tzu

The Hot Zone — Richard Preston (bioweapons)

The Good War — Studs Terkel

 

 CRIMINOLOGY:

Hunting Humans: The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers — Michael Newton

Kids Who Kill — Charles Patrick Ewing

The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison — Pete Earley

8 Ball Chicks — Gini Sikes (Don’t let the title fool you . . . by far, this is the most realistic depiction of street gang life we’ve seen yet . . . this is the real deal, children) This book is REQUIRED READING for all "wannabe gangstas" in need of a serious reality check. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 

 PSYCHOLOGY:

The Gift of Fear — Gavin DeBecker (REQUIRED READING)

The Human Zoo — Desmond Morris

The Myth of Mental Illness — Dr. Thomas Szsaz

Meeting the Shadow — Connie Zweig & Jeremiah Abrams

 

 SOCIOLOGY:

Violence, Blunders, and Broken Jaws — Marc MacYoung (REQUIRED READING)

Authority — Richard Sennett (Highly Recommended)

The Great Divide — Studs Terkel

American Dreams: Lost and Found — Studs Terkel

The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers — Daniel R. Wolf

Hell’s Angels — Yves Lavigne (even though he’s a major prick)

Do or Die: The Crips and Bloods in their Own Words — Leon Bing

The Gang as an American Enterprise — Felix M. Padilla

Job Opportunities in the Black Market — Burgess Laughlin

Skid Row Beat — Loren Christensen

Why People Believe Weird Things — Michael Shermer

Secret Societies — David V. Barrett

The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy — David B. Kopel (The best book we’ve ever seen about the issue of gun control) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Wallbangin’— Susan A. Phillips (How to read gang graffiti)

 

 PHILOSOPHY:

Zen to Go — Jon Winokur (Highly Recommended)

Zen in the Martial Arts — Joe Hyams

365 Tao: Daily Meditations — Deng Ming-Dao

Basic Self-Knowledge — Harry Benjamin (This one is actually somewhat advanced)

The Kybalion — Three Initiates (Yogi Publication Society)

Waking Up — Charles T. Tart

Tao Te Ching, The Definitive Edition (Star translation) — Lao Tzu

 

 HISTORY:

A People’s History of the United States — Howard Zinn

The Underside of American History — Thomas R. Frazier

Hard Times — Studs Terkel

I Have Spoken: American History Through the Voices of the Indians — Armstrong

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee — Dee Brown

Inside the White House — Ronald Kessler

Warrior Cults: A History — Paul Elliot (A basic introduction to the subject)

Lies My Teacher Taught Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong — James W. Loewen

A Criminal History of Mankind — Colin Wilson

 

 LAW:

In the Gravest Extreme — Massad Ayoob (The best outline of self-defense laws we’ve ever seen)

You and the Police! — "Boston T. Party" (pseudonym)

Never Say Lie — How to Beat the Machines, the Interviews, the Tests — Scott French

The Outlaw’s Bible — E. X. Boozhie

Making Crime Pay — Harold S. Long (Believe it or not, there’s actually sound legal advice here)

Your State’s Penal Codes

 

 OPINION:

Parliament of Whores — P. J. O’Rourke

Iron Joe Bob — Joe Bob Briggs

The Redneck Manifesto — Jim Goad (Offensive, but he makes a few valid observations)

 

 MEMOIRS:

Will — G. Gordon Liddy (Highly Recommended)

Hell’s Angel — Ralph "Sonny" Barger

War Story — Jim Morris

Once a Warrior King — David Donovan (psuedonym)

Reflections of a Warrior — Franklin D. Miller

Immediate Action — Andy McNab

Rogue Warrior — Richard Marcinko

Blue Highways — William Least Heat Moon

In the Belly of the Beast — Jack Henry Abbott

Education of a Wandering Man — Louis L’Amour

 

 

 CONSPIRACY THEORISM:

From Freedom to Slavery — Gerry Spence ("When Corporations Rule the World")

The Occult Technology of Power — Anonymous (available from Loompanics)

Clear Intent — Fawcett & Greenwood (Backed up with numerous FOIA documents)

The Emperor Wears No Clothes — Jack Herer (Supported by a voluminous mass of documentation)

Kill Zone — Craig Roberts (An intriguing analysis of the JFK assassination from the perspective of a veteran sniper)

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy — Greg Palast. (In which is revealed the true nature of the Corporate Occupation Government).

LIES And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them — Al Franken (While the title is funny, the content certainly is not.  An antidote for talk radio propaganda)

 MIND CONTROL:

Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America — Kalle Lasn (Highly Recommended)

True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements — Eric Hoffer

The Mind Possessed: A Physiology of Possession, Mysticism, and Faith Healing — William Sargant

The Guru Papers — Joel Kramer & Diana Alstad

Psychic Dictatorship in the U.S.A. — Alex Constantine  (It would be incredibly easy to laugh off this book based solely upon the silly title — but if you actually were to obtain a copy and open it up you’d be shocked to find that the hundreds of footnotes have been exhaustively documented, primarily from respected scientific journals and declassified government files).

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television — Jerry Mander.

 

 FICTION:

Tough Guys Don’t Dance — Norman Mailer (Mailer’s greatest work)

The Last Cold War Cowboy — James Park Sloan

Snow Crash — Neal Stephenson (Sci-Fi about the future of the Internet)

Zodiac — Neal Stephenson (Highly relevant in these troubled times of rampant corporate treason)

Beauty — Sheri Tepper (Will change the way you look at Horror novels)

Shella — Andrew Vachss (Vachss is great, and this is probably his best work)

Blossom — Andrew Vachss

Dead City — Shane Stevens (Jolting)

Metzger’s Dog — Thomas Perry (Funny)

Let Us Prey — Bill Branon (Funny as hell, although it probably wasn’t intended to be)

The Monkey Handlers — G. Gordon Liddy (Hardcore)

Wet Work — Christopher Buckley

The Five Fingers — Gayle Rivers

The Listening Ones — Naomi Stokes

JOB: A Comedy of Justice — Robert Heinlein (The Fundamentalists hated this one!)

The Golden Compass — Phillip Pullman (Marketed as a "Children’s Book")

The Book of the Subgenius — J. R. "Bob" Dobbs (Hilarious — just don’t take it too seriously)

Guilded Needles — Michael McDowell (An excellent historical novel — if you can find a copy).

 

CHILDREN’S BOOKS:

House of Stairs, by William Sleator

The Car, by Gary Paulsen

The Golden Compass, by Phillip Pullman

 

THE BLACK ARTS:

It is widely known that many Warriors have chosen to study various aspects of Arcane Lore — from Paganism (of any form) to advanced concepts like actual etheric projection. Unfortunately (as you probably already know), at least 90% of all "occult-related" texts out there are complete and utter bullshit. It is very easy to get turned-off to the entire subject of the occult after wasting your money on books written by delusional flakes or unscrupulous charlatans, which are filled with fluff, nonsense, and unworkable techniques, and will teach you nothing. For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, our Spiritual Advisor (SCRIBE 27) has selected a few of his favorite texts:

 

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Paganism, by Carl McColman.  If you know very little about the subject matter, you could do a lot worse than this amusing overview.

The Holographic Universe, by Michael Talbot. A remarkable treatise on the nature of reality, which details the corollaries between quantum physics, Zen Buddhism, and shamanistic thought.  A master work!!!

Arcane Lore, by Scribe 27: This is one of the best occult texts you can acquire, and I recommend that you check out the sample chapters posted at our site.

Practical Psychic Self-Defense, by Robert Bruce: This text wasn’t included in the bibliography of my book because it hadn’t yet been published. Although I am in disagreement with the gentle Mister Bruce on a few points, this book was far better than the half-dozen others I’d read which purported to cover the same subject matter.

Wiccan Warrior, by Kerr Cuhulain (pseudonym) is required reading for anyone who is considering joining any sort of "pagan" group. Although I don’t agree with everything he says, he definitely makes a few very good points — the most important one being that most "occult" practitioners really don’t know what the fuck they’re doing! An excellent introductory text (although there are an awful lot of "High Priests" who could learn a lot from it).

Real Magic, by Isaac Bonewits is an intermediate level text for those of you who are interested in actually performing your own rituals. Down-to-earth, cynical, pragmatic, and funny as hell, Mister Bonewitz is an excellent teacher. No flaky "New-Age" bullshit here (which is a refreshing change from 90% of the "magickal" texts out there — the remainder consisting mostly of unworkable Classical Ceremonial bullshit). Highly recommended.

Rune Magic, by Donald Tyson is one of the very few runic texts actually worth reading (the majority are written either by ignorant "New-Age" flakes or delusional Neo-Nazis). The lessons within can be applied by practitioners of any level of expertise, from novice to adept. Although I disagree with him on the concept of bindrunes (I don’t recommend their use), this excellent text is highly recommended.   If you want to learn even more about the runes, check out the excellent text, Futhark, by Edred Thorsson.

Shouting at the Wolf, by Anderson Reed.  Even though this book came highly recommended, I honestly didn’t expect much due to the gay title; however, I was pleasantly surprised. Although I disagree with a few of the things she says, this is one of the better "psychic self-defense" books out there.

Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda at first glance appears to the cynical eye to be nothing more than a load of crap (the likes of which Castaneda and other New Age hucksters have filled the bookstore shelves with). However, the shocking fact is that a great many of the author’s dubious statements have actually been corroborated! Before corporations had free reign to pollute the earth, as well as the bodies and minds of the earth’s people, true saints could be found walking amongst men (now they’re all in the gaol or the nuthouse). This classic text provides a few anecdotes from a nearly forgotten history. Definitely worth reading once . . . even if it isn't true.