I came into this book thinking it was going to be entirely about military battle tactics, such as, attacking from the high ground and things like that. While that was part of it, I was surprised at how much of the book was philosophical and even anti-violence. Maybe it was just me, but I didn't expect a book called The Art of War to preach against violence every chance it had. The philosophical aspect was the most interesting to me. There were plenty of things that you can apply to every day life as odd as it might sound. This translation also has input from historical figures such as Cao Cao, who I and some others may know from the video game series Dynasty Warriors which I thought added a very interesting aspect to the book. I am not sure if that can be said of other translations and versions of this book since this is the only one I've read. I usually feel like I don't have much to add with reviews that hasn't been already said plenty of times, but if anyone, like me, goes into this or is thinking about reading it and is expecting just straight military fighting strategy, know that there is much more to it than just that. ( )