'Lawrence of Arabia' - Seven Pillars of Wisdom

A book I had been meaning to read since high school, inspired by the movie. As one might infer from the fact that it took me nearly fifty years to get around to it, that wasn't a really great motivation for what is a bit of a tough read.
The book is much different than the movie. A lot more fleas, malaria, lice, and stupidity of war and tribal and international politics. The book does give us T.E. Lawrence's internal voice, including his self-doubts and perceptions of the roles of various players in the war against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East during WWI. As such, it is a lot more nuanced and not as glorified as the movie.
But, reality is actually a lot more complicated. Lawrence was playing very complicated game. While Lawrence shows us more about his complicated role in the Arab Revolt than the movie can, he doesn't show us all his cards either. Quite a lot of political intrigue was kept secret during Lawrence's lifetime, indeed until the late 1960s. Some followup reading of one of the more modern biographies of Lawrence really is needed to fill in the gaps.