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Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield is a favorite of mine.

_The Legend of Bagger Vance_ is probably his best known book (and the book is a lot better than the movie).

_Gates of Fire_ is very good.

Another great one is "Gates of Fire" by Pressfield

Stephen Pressfield is fantastic. Besides "Gates of Fire," I've read "The Afghan Campaign" and "The Virtues of War," two novels about Alexander The Great. Very highly recommended.

There's a historically accurate novel about a Spartan boy's coming-of-age. "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield - a very good read and widely celebrated classic.

What a tiring rant.

For anyone that hasn’t read gates of fire I highly recommend it. It is historical fiction and a thrilling journey.

You can make up your own mind about supposed hidden agendas, or …just enjoy a great story.

Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield, because I realized how simple are my own troubles compared to those 300 spartans that faced death against a force that easily was 1000 times bigger.
Now every time I’m facing difficults I remember about those guys and nothing looks so hard in comparison.

Pressfield's historical fiction (Gates of Fire, etc.) is top-notch. If you haven't read them, I highly recommend.

Yes I think it was called "Gates Of Fire". There is another book of his called "The Afghan Campaign" that I liked. It is about a greek soldier passing through Afghanistan for Alexander's campaign to reach India.

This author specialises in historical fiction. I remember reading a book of his (Gates of Fire) maybe 15 years ago and in my opinion he sticks to his prescribed advice well. That book had a great tempo, great characters, great story. It respected my time as a reader.

The flip side is that it's not the kind of book that would win awards.

For anyone interested in some historical fiction about Alexander the Great’s conquests is absolutely recommend The Virtues Of War by Steven Pressfield.

Pressfields books are some f my favorite: as historically accurate as possible with a great story to keep you engaged. Gates of Fire, by him, would be another recommended period piece.

If you have never read any of Pressfield's work than you are in for a treat. Gates of Fire is one of my all time favorite books. He even knows how to craft words from a secondary language (Greek).

Steven Pressfield (author of Gates of Fire and Legend of Bagger Vance) would disagree:
http://home.stevenpressfield.com/books/war_art.asp#excerpt

I highly recommend The War of Art, his book on overcoming procrastination for artists. Sit down every day and work.

Gates of fire is a great book, that I would recommend. But it’s a novel. The Spartans didn’t really write anything down. All the character interaction is great, but cut from whole cloth of the author s imagination. It’s a great story. The big fight might be accurate, but about as accurate as a third hand account.

But yes, I really enjoyed it. Good book.

The War of Art
http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/

Break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles.

Many books mentioned here are good, this is the only I haven't seen referenced. But this one book really helped me deal with resistance and get stuff done. Seth Godin is a big fan and references it a lot in his material.

Steven Pressfield also wrote 'The Legend of Bagger Vance' and Gates of Fire (Spartan 300 kind of book but way deeper).

Though not my life per se, I find the fiction in the USMC's reading list to be very .. interesting. It's a strange mix of more popular titles and super niche books. It's all focused on war-fighting, but it gives a great look into the Marines:

GATES OF FIRE: AN EPIC NOVEL OF THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE by Steven Pressfield

STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert A. Heinlein

ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card

READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline

GHOST FLEET: A NOVEL OF THE NEXT WORLD WAR by P. W. Singer; August Cole

THE KILLER ANGELS: THE CLASSIC NOVEL OF THE CIVIL WAR by Michael Shaara

The whole 2019 reading list is great stuff, top notch reading for any hacker or c-suite, especially the discussion guides: https://grc-usmcu.libguides.com/usmc-reading-list/discussion...

Pressfield's books are great. I'd additionally recommend following up the Virtues of War with The Afghan Campaign -- which is also about Alexander, but focused entirely on the time he spent in Afghanistan. There are some astounding parallels to today.

Then, when you're done, Gates of Fire is a classic (Pressfield's novel on the Battle of Thermopylae). Tides of War is on the Peloponnesian War that followed.

I came across Yon years ago by way of his "Gates Of Fire" blog entry. His account of combat (which he was personally drawn into in this case) is the most gripping I've ever read.

Well worth a read to get a sense of the chaos and terror of urban combat. How fast it goes and how little time there is to make any kind of decision. You can see why training matters so much.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/gates-of-fire.htm

I remember reading in Gates of Fire [0] that the Spartans used heavy, round oak shields which suited there phalanx style of warfare.

The Persians (and their allies) used wicker shields that chose light weight over protection [1].

More recently, there was also a video floating around recently of how protesters were building Viking shield walls to protect themselves [2]

0 - https://amzn.to/39n23Jx
1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparabara
2 - https://twitter.com/joshuapotash/status/1291962889323020288?...

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield

It gives a glimpse in the mindset of how the Spartans viewed life and how disciplined they were. Its a really inspiring book in the sense that it gives you a view of how they (supposedly) viewed life while knowing they will probably die in battle.

edit: I should note that while the battle of Thermopylae is real the characters and the story is fictional hence this is categorised under historical fiction.

Older books, bought secondhand and enjoyed:

Batavia’s Graveyard - A brutal history of a shipwreck and subsequent mutiny that occurred off the coast of Australia in 1629 when Dutch traders were exploring a new route to the East Indies. Much better than expected from the cover.

Gates of Fire - Historical fiction that tells the story of the Spartan 300 and the battle of Thermopylae. Lived up to it’s high recommendation.

A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924 - still working my way through this detailed tome, but enjoying the style of the author.

In the book Gates of Fire, it's mentioned that split pieces of wood were used as "dog tags" for soldiers.

Each solider would write his name on the stick, break it in half, toss one half into a basket and tie the other stick to themselves.

At the end of the battle, any stick still in the basket that wasn't claimed was clearly a "casualty". The sticks tied to the individuals could also be used for identification.

The War of Art - Stephen Pressfield - how to overcome yourself

Gates of Fire - same as above, the story of the stand at Thermopylae

Agincourt & 3 part series Archer's tale - Bernard Cornwell - accounts of medievil warfare

StrengthsFinder 2.0 - Tom Rath - take a test and discover your strengths/things you love to do, focus on on doing those

Non-fiction

The Emperors New Mind - Roger Penrose

Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglass Hoffstadter

Brocas Brain - Carl Sagan

The (mis)Behavior of Markets - Benoit Mandelbrot

The Black Swan - Nicholas Nassem Taleb

Fiction

Gates Of Fire - Stephen Pressfield

Neuromancer - William Gibson

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

Hardwired - Walter Jon Williams

Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan

Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson

Space - Stephen Baxter

Enders Game - Orson Scott Card

Skeleton Crew - Stephen King

I've given away a lot of books. I'm old.