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Reading Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa

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I first heard about this book on Jocko Willink's podcast episode 50. Him and Tim Ferriss recommended it effusively. Considering that I enjoy their content and I love japanese culture, I decided to give it a shot.

Man, was it a good choice. The book is very long (1000+ pages), but I'm enjoying it a lot and I don't want it to end. It's divided in 7 parts and I'm currently reading the 6th.

I didn't realize it at first, but turns out one of my favourite manga, Vagabond, is based on the book. I love Takehiko Inoue's artwork, so it's awesome to recall his drawings while reading the book.

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Task started

Well, it is time. I finished part 6 so I'll now start reading the last one: Book VII - The Perfect Light.

I'll surely miss reading Musashi. Some people don't enjoy long stories, but I'm quite the opposite. Once I become familiar with the characters, as long as i maintain its quality, I wouldn't mind it running forever.

Of course, it's very difficult to maintain quality for long before it starts degrading. That's why I believe authors should end on their own terms, instead of dragging it. And there's no denying the value of a good ending.

Looking forward to the climax!

I just finished reading this book and it's for sure one of the best I've ever read. I'm even considering replacing my favourite book: the Sherlock Holmes Anthology. But it's too soon to say.

I'm not closing the task yet because I want to review the notes I took and do some summary. The book is very long and there are a ton of gems within, so it's only fair to take some time to digest it.

After looking over my notes, I decided to publish some of them in a blog post. I'd have liked to use some images from the manga Vagabond, but I couldn't find anything good that was available without copyright infringements. So I ended up using the image that's found in Musashi's wikipedia page. But you should check them out!

I see myself coming back to review this book at some point, because it was so awesome. But for now, that's it for this Task.

Task completed