One of the original books on the tactics and strategy of war, also used in the business arena. Considered by some to be outdated, and by others to be the ongoing founding rules of engagement.

I've read this book multiple times and I enjoy Sun Tzu's thought process and practicality.

This particular version is absolutely brutal for Kindle formatting. I don't recommend it.

Go to my storage locker and dig out my beloved printed version.

Major formatting problems lead to a near-complete loss of Sun Tzu's work in favour of commentary.

2-stars is for THIS version only. I'd say overall I'd give Sun Tzu's writings a 4 to 4.5.

I read The Art of War every few years. I'm well aware of the critique - the book is outdated, the teachings are obvious, yadda yadda yadda. I disagree, but I understand the arguments against it.

What I like most about Sun Tzu's teachings are what appears obvious is often not (and certainly not in practice), it has applications to current real-life situations which are not always obvious (a battle does not have to be an actual war), and my favourite takeaway is "do it quietly, do it fast, do it cheap, and if you can do without casualties, even better").

This version, though, was not the best. The introduction by Bob Sutton was not atrocious, but the ebook formatting sure was. So much get lost in the layout of Sun Tzu words, which get even further buried in the commentary.

I only selected this version because my paper version is in storage for the time being and I wanted a quick read. This wasn't it. Even familiar with what I was reading, I found this to be a jumbled mess. If this was the first version I'd picked up, I'd have walked away with quite a dislike for the book.

This is one where I will stick with printed versions, and be picky about layout.

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Created Oct 09, 2019 at 9:19pm • Submit your own review...