Reading List

Authors Like Bruce Lee

Q: What should I read after Tao of Jeet Kune Do?

Try Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings for strategy, Krishnamurti’s Freedom from the Known (1969) for philosophy, or Shannon Lee’s Be Water, My Friend (2020) for his ideas applied to daily life.

Q: Did Bruce Lee write his books himself?

He published Chinese Gung-Fu in 1963. Tao of Jeet Kune Do appeared in 1975, after his death, edited by Gilbert L. Johnson, and John Little edited the later Bruce Lee Library volumes from his writings.

Q: Which Bruce Lee book should I read first?

Start with Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975), or with Striking Thoughts (2000) if you want his ideas in short entries.

Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco’s Chinatown on 27 November 1940, while his parents were on an opera tour; four months later the family went home to Hong Kong. In 1963 he published Chinese Gung-Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self-Defense. His reading ran from Lao-tzu, Chuang-tzu and Musashi to Krishnamurti and Alan Watts, as well as Plato and Hume. When he died in Kowloon on 20 July 1973, aged 32, of a brain oedema whose causes are still disputed, his longer book did not yet exist: Tao of Jeet Kune Do was published in 1975, edited by Gilbert L. Johnson, and John Little edited further volumes of his writing in the late 1990s. The ten writers below share what Lee took from his reading: discipline as a way of knowing yourself, the body as a teacher, and distrust of any fixed system.

By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Philosophy · Martial arts · Self-knowledge · Updated October 2026

Quick answer

If you love Bruce Lee, start with Jiddu Krishnamurti, who told his followers in 1929 that “truth is a pathless land” and whom Lee read closely. Miyamoto Musashi wrote The Book of Five Rings (1645) after a life of duels, and Laozi is the traditional author of the Tao Te Ching, both on Lee’s shelf. Further down are his daughter’s book on his philosophy and a biography that complicates the legend.

10 authors like Bruce Lee

The source of the water image

Laozi

Chinese · Tao Te Ching (traditionally 6th century BC)

Laozi, “Old Master”, is the honorific of the legendary philosopher traditionally credited with the Tao Te Ching, a founding text of Taoism. Tradition places him in the sixth century BC; modern scholars generally treat his biography as later invention and the book as the work of several hands. One of its central ideas is wu wei, action without forcing.

Lee named Lao-tzu among his sources, and his advice to be formless and shapeless, like water, belongs to this tradition. Short enough to read in an evening and to reread for years, it suits readers who want the root of his thinking rather than its applications.

— Lisanne

A fighter who wrote philosophy

Miyamoto Musashi

Japanese · The Book of Five Rings (1645)

Musashi (c. 1583–1645) was a Japanese swordsman said to have fought 62 duels without defeat, including a famous one with Sasaki Kojirō on Ganryū Island in 1612. He finished The Book of Five Rings in the second month of 1645, a few months before he died, and in his last days wrote the short Dokkōdō, a list of precepts.

The nearest thing to Lee in an earlier century: a fighter who treated combat as a way of knowing yourself and wrote it down near the end of his life. Lee read him; the two share a contempt for stylish technique that does not work and an insistence on adapting to the opponent.

— Lisanne

Every book by Miyamoto Musashi →

Conflict read before it is fought

Sun Tzu

Chinese · The Art of War (5th–4th century BC)

Sun Tzu, “Master Sun”, is traditionally the general who wrote The Art of War, though scholars doubt he existed as described. Most date the text to the start of the Warring States period; bamboo slips found in 1972 at Yinqueshan, sealed between 134 and 118 BC, hold about a third of it. Its thirteen chapters favour avoiding battle where possible.

Lee and Sun Tzu both treat fighting as mostly psychological: knowing yourself, reading the other side and never committing to a fixed form. The Art of War suits readers who came to Lee for strategy rather than spirituality.

— Lisanne

Every book by Sun Tzu →

Private notebooks, published later

Marcus Aurelius

Roman · Meditations (written c. 170–180)

Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 180. The Meditations are notes he wrote in Greek for his own guidance, much of them probably during military campaigns, with no original title and almost certainly no intention of publication.

Like Tao of Jeet Kune Do, a book assembled from one disciplined man’s notes to himself and read by millions after his death. Marcus writes as a Stoic rather than a Taoist, but both return again and again to self-command and to the present moment.

— Lisanne

No path, no guru

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian · The First and Last Freedom (1954), Freedom from the Known (1969)

Krishnamurti was born in Madanapalle, in British India, in 1895 and was raised by the Theosophists as a future world teacher. In August 1929, at Ommen in the Netherlands, he dissolved the order built around him, saying that truth is a pathless land, and spent the rest of his life rejecting gurus and followers. He died in Ojai, California, in 1986. A 1991 memoir by Radha Rajagopal Sloss described a long secret affair with her mother, Rosalind Rajagopal, which he never confirmed.

The writer whose influence on Lee is best documented. Krishnamurti’s refusal of any system is close to Lee’s refusal of fixed styles, and Freedom from the Known reads like the philosophy underneath Jeet Kune Do.

— Lisanne

Every book by Jiddu Krishnamurti →

Eastern ideas for Western readers

Alan Watts

British-American · The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951), The Way of Zen (1957)

Watts was born in Chislehurst, Kent, in 1915, moved to the United States in 1938 and became a citizen in 1943. The Way of Zen was one of the first best-selling books on Buddhism in the West. Zen teachers including D. T. Suzuki criticised his interpretations, and he drank heavily in later life. He died in California in November 1973, four months after Lee.

Lee read Watts, and both did the same job in different fields: carrying Taoist and Zen ideas to Americans in plain language. The Wisdom of Insecurity suits readers drawn to Lee’s writing on letting go of fixed ideas.

— Lisanne

Every book by Alan Watts →

Beginner’s mind

Shunryu Suzuki

Japanese · Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (1970)

Suzuki (1904–1971) was a Sōtō Zen monk from Kanagawa Prefecture who founded the San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the first Zen Buddhist monastery outside Asia. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, edited by Trudy Dixon from his talks, appeared a year before his death.

A teacher of an Asian discipline to Americans in California in the 1960s, as Lee was. Suzuki’s idea that the beginner sees more possibilities than the expert is close to Lee’s warnings against rigid training, and the book suits readers who want practice rather than theory.

— Lisanne

Every book by Shunryu Suzuki →

Attention in ordinary action

Thích Nhất Hạnh

Vietnamese · The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975), Old Path White Clouds (1991)

Thích Nhất Hạnh was born in Huế in 1926 and was exiled from South Vietnam in 1966 for opposing the war; Martin Luther King Jr. nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. In 1982 he founded Plum Village, a monastery in south-west France. He returned to Vietnam and died in Huế in 2022.

Where Lee trained awareness through the body in combat, Thích Nhất Hạnh trained it through walking, breathing and washing up. The Miracle of Mindfulness suits readers who want Lee’s idea of full attention without the fighting.

— Lisanne

Every book by Thích Nhất Hạnh →

His philosophy, from his daughter

Shannon Lee

American · Be Water, My Friend (2020)

Shannon Lee, born in 1969, is Bruce Lee’s daughter and only living child, and president of the Bruce Lee Foundation. She was involved in developing the television series Warrior, based on his ideas. Be Water, My Friend sets out his philosophy for everyday life.

The most direct route from Lee’s notebooks to a reader’s own life, written by someone who has spent decades with his papers. It suits readers who want his ideas explained rather than his techniques.

— Lisanne

The man behind the legend

Matthew Polly

American · American Shaolin (2007), Bruce Lee: A Life (2018)

Polly trained at the Shaolin Temple for American Shaolin. Bruce Lee: A Life draws on interviews with more than a hundred people, including Lee’s widow and daughter; it describes his temper, obsessive work ethic, affairs and the racism he faced, and argues that heatstroke, not a fight or cannabis, best explains his death. A Chinese critic, Feng Yingbiao, faulted it for a Eurocentric view and weak fact-checking.

The book that complicates everything else on this list. Read it after the philosophy, for the distance between the disciplined sage in Lee’s notes and the restless, driven man who wrote them.

— Lisanne

Where to start if you loved Bruce Lee

If you want the roots of his thinking, read Laozi.

The Tao Te Ching is short; read it slowly beside Tao of Jeet Kune Do.

If you want a fighter’s philosophy, read Miyamoto Musashi.

The Book of Five Rings (1645) is the warrior’s manual Lee’s writing most resembles.

If you want his rejection of systems, read Krishnamurti.

Freedom from the Known (1969) is the clearest single book of his talks.

If you want the real man, read Matthew Polly.

Bruce Lee: A Life (2018) is the full biography, temper and affairs included.

If you want Lee himself, start with Tao of Jeet Kune Do.

It is the 1975 book assembled from his writing; the Bruce Lee Library volumes edited by John Little followed from 1997.

Frequently asked questions about authors like Bruce Lee

Who writes like Bruce Lee?

The closest are Jiddu Krishnamurti, whom Lee read closely, Miyamoto Musashi, whose Book of Five Rings (1645) is a fighter’s philosophy, and Laozi, the traditional author of the Tao Te Ching.

What should I read after Tao of Jeet Kune Do?

Try Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings for strategy, Krishnamurti’s Freedom from the Known (1969) for philosophy, or Shannon Lee’s Be Water, My Friend (2020) for his ideas applied to daily life.

Did Bruce Lee write his books himself?

He published Chinese Gung-Fu in 1963. Tao of Jeet Kune Do appeared in 1975, after his death, edited by Gilbert L. Johnson, and John Little edited the later Bruce Lee Library volumes from his writings.

Is there a new Bruce Lee book or film?

We found no new collection of his writing published or announced in the last eighteen months. Ang Lee’s planned biopic, with his son Mason Lee as Bruce Lee, was reported in December 2025 to be on hold over creative, funding and copyright issues.

Which Bruce Lee book should I read first?

Start with Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975), or with Striking Thoughts (2000) if you want his ideas in short entries.

Was Bruce Lee influenced by Krishnamurti?

Yes. Krishnamurti was a particular interest of his, and Lee is listed among the people Krishnamurti influenced.

Sources

List last reviewed 31 October 2026.

Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021. Every comparison here is a judgement about method and subject, not an algorithmic match. See more on her personal bookshelf.

Authors Like Bruce Lee

10 authors like Bruce Lee

Laozi

Miyamoto Musashi

Sun Tzu

Marcus Aurelius

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Alan Watts

Shunryu Suzuki

Thích Nhất Hạnh

Shannon Lee

Matthew Polly

Where to start if you loved Bruce Lee

Frequently asked questions about authors like Bruce Lee

Who writes like Bruce Lee?

What should I read after Tao of Jeet Kune Do?

Did Bruce Lee write his books himself?

Is there a new Bruce Lee book or film?

Which Bruce Lee book should I read first?

Was Bruce Lee influenced by Krishnamurti?

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