Re: Inspirational Reading
I rather enjoy (and draw stuff from) Laura Joh Rowland's books about Sano Ichiro. They are detective/mystery stories set in 17th-century Japan. So far, I've only read the first two in the series: Shinju, about a twin suicide, and Bundori, involving a serial killer that decapitates and mounts the victim's heads as trophies.
Good stuff.
The Unknown Ronin