What’s on your bookshelf? (Share your recommended reading!)

Kierkegaard

Kierkegaard

5-Year Member
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Jan 26, 2017
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As a lowly butterbar waiting around to enter the next phase in the training pipeline, I’ve got ample free time that I’m trying to use (mostly) productively. I think one of the best ways to do this especially at my young age is to be a sponge for knowledge by reading. I know there are plenty of readers on this forum, so I figured I’d start a thread to share and discuss any books that you feel have helped you in life. Mostly nonfiction but fiction certainly could be a part of it too. So feel free to shoot any recommendations in here! I’ll start:

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie taught me a lot about not just making friends, but getting results in professional environments. After all, almost everything is a people business in some aspect.
 
Currently reading Never Mind, We'll Do it Ourselves

One of the authors is a partner in a real estate project I'm working on. Great story, and it's true!

Also, loved Gates of Fire. It was lent to my MIDN during Plebe summer when he was in ISO (38 days total between ISO and Quarantine) and we read it at the same time. I've read it again since then. Incredibly written story.

I also just finished Devotion. Excellent.
 
Explore DoD Reads. Started by a USNA grad. Lists professional reading lists from various services and leaders. Great podcasts and book reviews.

www.dodreads.com

- DODReads

I'm John Laney, a guy who nearly failed his Command Selecton Board when he could not come with a good answer to "What are you Reading?" Four years later I'm running the largest military reading website; come join me on the journy.
www.dodreads.com www.dodreads.com
 
“Balkan Ghosts,” by Robert Kaplan. A piercing look at what roils this fascinating region of the world.

“Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman. A very insightful examination of how we humans perceive, remember and decide.

“Kitchen Confidential,” by the late, great Anthony Bourdain. You’ll never think of dining out the same.

“Lonesome Dove,” by Larry McMurtry. Fiction, about the Old West, adventure, brotherhood. As my old roommate would say, many manly men doing many manly things. (But great reading whether you’re male or female.)
 
One of the very first questions I ask people I interview is "What is the last book you read and what are you reading now?"

I have had less than satisfactory results with my eldest (HS senior with a 4y Marine NROTC scholarship) getting him to read so I applaud you for your foresight.

These are my key military books:

o The Killer Angels (a novel about Gettysburg)

o A Stillness at Appomattox: This Pulitzer Prize-winner will take you on a personal journey into the Civil War and reveal how politics intersects with strategy/tactics and demonstrate that however bad you think we as a country are doing today, we've been way, way worse. You will smell the gunpowder on the battlefield as well as the cigar smoke in the meeting rooms.

o The Forgotten Soldier. A German private on the Russian Front. You think you've been through the suck? You have no idea how bad it can get until you read this book.

This Kind of War. About Korea. Yikes.

What It's Like to go to War and Matterhorn. Written by a Rhodes Scholar who won a Navy Cross in Vietnam. Get ready for some harsh realities.

Eddie Rickenbacher's autobiography. America's WWI Ace of Aces, founder of Eastern Airlines. Medal of Honor. I have a signed copy. This dude was AMAZING. It starts with "I have faced death many times..." He's not kidding. This dude was so awesome! He became pen-pals with my big brother and inspired him to go to USAFA from whence he became a fighter pilot of distinction.

The Look of Eagles by John T. Godfrey. This book is long out of print which is a shame. Tom Hanks should make a movie about this guy. It traces his life from when his brother was killed by a U-Boat as a merchant sailor to his joining the Royal Canadian Air Force as an 18yo (US was not at war at the time). Shenanigans in London flying Spitfires, P-47s, and one of the first Mustang Units. Godfrey was one of the highest scoring US aces in Europe until he was shot down in late summer '44. His escape attempts didn't pan out until the last one at the end of the war. He died young of MS and the book touches on his struggles with this as well as his struggles with PTSD. What a great book.
 
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MidCakePa said:
“Balkan Ghosts,” by Robert Kaplan. A piercing look at what roils this fascinating region of the world.

“Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman. A very insightful examination of how we humans perceive, remember and decide.

“Kitchen Confidential,” by the late, great Anthony Bourdain. You’ll never think of dining out the same.

“Lonesome Dove,” by Larry McMurtry. Fiction, about the Old West, adventure, brotherhood. As my old roommate would say, many manly men doing many manly things. (But great reading whether you’re male or female.)
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I will second Thinking Fast and Slow although this may beyond the experience of a 2LT.
 
My "bookshelf" is a tad bigger than one shelf...however, some recommended readings...

American Generalship by Edgar F. Puryear
19 Stars by Edgar F. Puryear
American Patriot (About Colonel Bud Day)
The Secrets of Inchon by Eugene F. Clark (a secret part of the invasion most folks have never heard of)
Boyd by Robert Coram
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James D. Hornfischer (it will blow your mind)
Augustus Hervey's Journal by Admiral Augustus John Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol (it's...well, you just have to read it)
Cochrane: The Life and Times of a Fighting Captain by Robert Harvey (Hollywood has NOTHING on Lord Cochrane)
All for the Union by Robert Hunt Rhodes
Company Aytch (Or a Side Show of the BIG Show) by Sam Watkins
The Prize of All the Oceans by Glenn Williams
The Great Mutiny by James Dugan

Those are just a few that are within reach of my keyboard...
 
Right now I am reading "Let's Roll: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage" by Lisa Beamer, wife of Todd Beamer.
 
AN21 said:
I've been rereading One Bullet Away lately. It's the only book I can think of I that I just could not put it down when I first read it.
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Gracious... please forgive the poor grammar. Multitasking was clearly not my friend.
 
I just reread “When Hell Was in Session” by ADM Jeremiah Denton. He was one of the longest serving POWs in Vietnam and a great leader. I recommended it to my son (applying to USNA), so we’ll see if he finishes it. It’s not the easiest read b/c he details all the torture, but it certainly gives you perspective.
Great idea for a thread, thanks!
 
Mere Christianity by C.S, Lewis has been one of the most influential books in my life and helped me understand many things about God and His ways. I have reread parts of that book many times.
 
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