Best karate books you have read?

[wayneshin]

Karate: The Art of Empty-Hand Fighting by Hidetaka Nishiyama and Richard Brown

And...

Lessons with the Master by Paul A. Walker

These two stand out, imho, and I'm not even a Shotokan karateka.

Love my kindle. Just bought the latter of these for 3.67 on Amazon in about 5 seconds.

[OleOle]

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions folks, fantastic, keep them coming!

So as I alluded to in the opening post, I purchased "Karate Kenpo: The Art of Self-defense" by Kenwa Mabuni and it's a great read, I've already passed it on to my Sensei who when I passed him the book laughed and said that he trained under the translator of the book, Mario McKenna, so it really is a small world.

The other book I bought based on the recommendation thread on the aforementioned blog is "The Study of China Hand Techniques" by Morinobu Itoman, it's also a great read and very insightful with regards to Toudi, both books available here:

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/bechurinatgmaildotcom

Also, based on the recommendations of a number of forum members here (thanks very much) I have also purchased "Living the Martial Way: A Manual for the Way a Modern Warrior Should Think" by Forrest E. Morgan which I hope will arrive soon.

There's so many great books being recommended on this thread that I am thinking of suggesting many of them to the local public library for purchase as the books that they have on karate and the martial arts were rather generic, ideal to whet the appetite but not that great for history, technique, philosophy, etc.

While looking up other books mentioned on this thread I came across this book and wondered if anyone has read it and would recommend it? -

"The Way of Kata: A Comprehensive Guide for Deciphering Martial Applications" by Lawrence A. Kane

http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Kata-Comprehensive-Applications/dp/1594390584/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_cp_17_WNPR?ie=UTF8&refRID=0EYA48ESB992T4DC5V38

Thanks again for all your recommendations and comments, they are sincerely and gratefully appreciated.

[Wastelander]

"The Way of Kata" is a must-have for people interested in self-defense-focused karate, in my opinion. I also recommend "Bunkai-Jutsu" by Iain Abernethy.