God, Guns, & Rock 'N' Roll
by Ted Nugent

I read as many magazines as I can. I don't take the reviews to heart because they always will promote the firearm. I do like the gun porn. If you have the outdoor channel shooting USA, Guns and Ammo, Personal Defense TV, Gun Tech TV and Shooting Gallery are good programs. Then you have the internet and to start, this web site. I have gotten some great advise and pointers. Check out Shootingusa.com and go to links, you will find many forums.

Anything by the late, great Jeff Cooper - check www.gunsite.com.

Are you interested in the technical aspects of guns, or are you more interested in the shooting side? I'm not much into the technical side, but for actually shooting, defensive and otherwise:

"Shooting from Within" by J. Michael Plaxco

"Practical Shooting: Beyond Fundamentals" by Brian Enos

"Handgun Combatives" by Dave Spaulding

"Fighting Smarter" by Tom Givens

Other books by Bill Jordan, Massad Ayoob, John Farnam, Greg Morrison, Chuck Taylor, and Gabe Suarez have also been informative. My perspective is primarily defensive, however, and some of these books and authors may be beyond a new shooter's interest.

I have also enjoyed more technical reads by Elmer Keith, Skeeter Skelton, and John Taffin.

I read three gun rags a month and all the stuff I can find by Elmer Keith, John Taffin, and Skeeter Skelton. I have manuals by Jerry Kuhnhausen and Patrick Sweeney. Layman loading manuel 3rd edition and 2 Winchester books.

What do you like to read? novels,instructional, historical

[QUOTE=Mike Barham at Galco;48440]Anything by the late, great Jeff Cooper - check www.gunsite.com.

Absolutely. Read everything you can find by Cooper. It's long out of print, but try as hard as you can to find a used copy of Cooper On Handguns. Pay whatever you have to. It is the fountainhead of all our modern understanding of handguns for self-defense. Memorize it.

Marksmanship is only one part of defensive pistolcraft, and not the most important part. Mental conditioning is the most important. For that, buy yourself a copy of Cooper's Principles of Personal Defense. Powerful and inspiring.

Unintended Consequences, by John Ross.

All of the above are worthy. I'll add:

Anything by George Nonte

Anything by Dean Grennell

Combat Handgun Shooting by James D. Mason

Colt Automatic Pistols by Donald Bady

Hatchers Notebook and Textbook of Pistols and Revolvers by Julian Hatcher

Triggernometry by Eugene Cunningham

Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting by Ed McGivern

The Pistol Shooters Book by Charles Askins

Handgunner's Guide by Chic Gaylord

No Second Place Winner by Bill Jordan

Single Action Sixguns by John Taffin

Colt, An American Legondl by R. L. Wilson

By the time you read everything suggested so far, you'll be as old as I am. (No, I was not old enough to vote for Lincoln the first time. ;^)

But he did help re-elect Linclon

Books by Charles Askins, Massad Ayoob, Julien Hatcher, R. L. Wilson, Jeff Cooper, Chic Gaylord, Jim Supica & Rick Nahas, Roy Jinks, H. B. C. Pollard, Charles Petty, Paul Weston, A. L. A. Himmelwright, Bill Clede, John Bianchi, A.W.F. Taylerson, Gregory Morrison, Fred A. Datig, john Farnam, Jim Cirillo, Bill Jordon, Mike Dalton & Micky Fowler, Lewis Winant, Walter Roper, and Herschel Logan all have honored places in my handgun Library. There is much knowledge to be learned from books. I spend far toomuch on my library but there is still much to learn.

An absolute "Must Read" book for anyone that carries a weapon for defense is:

Armed Response by author David Kenik.

I just finished reading "The Luger Story" by John Walter
If you are at all interested in the most identifiable handgun of all time, this is a must.

"The Walther handgun Story" By Gene Gangerosa is also good.

I'd recommend Ed Mcgivern's book FAST AND FANCY REVOLVER SHOOTING. There are some timeless tips in there. Jeff Cooper's stuff is worth the read.

Massad Ayoob's column in AMERICAN HANDGUNNER is great, and that seems to be the best handgunning mag out there, worth the subscription. There's a book that he has out compiling a bunch of his columns from that mag, but the name escaped me.

Bill Jordan's NO SECOND PLACE WINNER is quite enjoyable.

Just fininshed WARLORD by Ilario Pantano, which is a great nonfiction piece about Iraq.

Fiction: Read Stephen Hunter's POINT OF IMPACT. Do it quick before the movie SHOOTER (with Mark Walberg) comes out and probably ruins the book forever. You'll be hooked. Also, anything by Vince Flynn is worth reading.

If you are interested in pistol shooting. I found the following to have plenty of useful information. All are paperback. Size 5 1/2 x 8 1/2. I ordered them from Amazon.

THE HAPPY HANDGUNNER................by Don Paul
HANDCANNONS.............................by Duncan Long
TACTICAL PISTOL MARKSMANSHIP...by Gabe Suarez