Recommend me some good historical reading

[Blarg]

I got a really cool book for 9 bucks on the remainder table at Barnes & Noble, The Roots of Strategy, The Greatest Military Classics of All Time. Edited by Brigadier General T.R. Phillips.

It starts off with Sun Tzu, 500 BC, for his The Art of War. Next is Vegetius from 390 AD with The Military Institutions of the Romans, which was written for the emperor but formed the backbone of European military theory throughout the middle ages. Then comes My Reveries Upon the Art of War, by Marshal Maurice de Saxe, 1732. Then The Instruction of of Frederick the Great for His Generals, 1747, and finally The Military Maxims of Napoleon.

I'm just leisurely poking into it here and there, and have gotten as far as page 110, the second book of Venetius. It's pretty good reading so far, but you do have to do some picturing of things in your head a bit as to exactly why something is a good strategy, sometimes. That's not a problem though and actually keeps the imagination active and helps paint a bit of color into the proceedings.

You could do worse than reading some of the leading strategists of the ages.

Also, a lot of recommendations would depend on what period you are focusing on, I'm sure.