My brother, Steve, turned me on to these great little books from Penguin. They are biographies, but short, 200 pages or so. I have finished Napoleon and Buddha, and have started on Winston Churchill. St. Augustine and Joseph Smith are next. I bought used copies on Amazon for a pittance. They’re written by good people and are fascinating, like classic comics without pictures. I am amazed at how little I knew about Napoleon. He killed off upwards of 5 million people in Europe, when there weren’t that many Europeans. Not to mention several hundred thousand horses. And it wasn’t that long ago, early 19th century. Those were the glory days for France. Thank God they’re over. And thank God for Great Britain and Wellington.
The Buddha biography by Karen Armstrong is also great. It gives you a feel for the Buddha’s times, attempts to separate myth from history, and does it all with a profound respect for the Buddha’s attainment and message.