I, personally, have an extensive collection of Military Reading, both Fiction and Non, etc etc.

I figured I could burn up some bytes by picking everyone else's brain for some good reads. I think it a worthwhile campaign to expand my knowledge base.

The last book I read, very happy with:

Learning How To Eat Soup With a Knife
Counter-Insurgency Lessons Learned from Vietnam to Malaysia by Johnathan Nagl, COL, USA

OK, some of mine:

The Bear Went Over the Moutain by Grau
--Soviets experience against the Mujahadin

USMC Small Wars Manual

1776 by Mccullough
--George Washington's most difficult year

Ghost Soldiers by Sides
--Commonly known now as the movie "The Great Raid". It's a great story, but he sucks as a writer.

Flags of Our Fathers
--Flag raising on Iwo Jima and "the after story" - not really military, but a great read.

Band of Brothers by Ambrose
--The book that the TV miniseries was based on, airborne troops in WWII Europe

See that Clint Eastwood is putting out a film on the Iwo Jiwa flagraisers as part of a two-part effort.. the second film will be about the Japanese side of the fight to hold the island..

Knowing the Squint, these should be two rich and worthwhile films...

I don't know if you can get this fiction author in the US his name is Bernard Cornwell. He rights a series called Sharpe's. There are 20 books in the series starting with Sharpe's Tiger and ending with Sharp's devil. The basic story line goes like this.Starting in 1799 following a young British army privates life in India at the siege of Seringapatam. The books that follow take him to some of the most famous battles in the British history eg. Trafalgar and Waterloo. The series ends with Sharp's Devil in 1821 by now a Colonel having been granted a commission after saving a generals life.

But if point blank British line infantry fighting of the 1800 is not your thing he has all so written a three book series called the Starbuck chronicles – books rebel, copperhead and battle flag all of which are on the US revolution.

If you can get your hands on one of his books there a good read

Check out the Biography Channel as they run a weekly show about Sharpe. Good series.

The Archer series is also good.

As a consequence of my work, I always have a number of books on the go..

if you're interested in something other than ' modern military ' history, etc.. I recommend the following:
1]
Like Wolves on the Fold by Lt. Col. Mike Snook
the defence fo Rorkes Drift - Brits vs. Zulus.. more than a retelling an exceelent analysis.
2]
Doc Holliday, Gary D. Roberts biography good stuff as Wyatt Earp usually gets all the glory..
3]
Two books in my ' area of expertise' if you're interested -one from American perspective, the other a ' balanced' Canadian view of the same conflict.
For Honour's Sake -the War of 1812 and the brokering of an uneasy peace. Mark Zuehlke [ who wrote WWII books on Juno Beach and Battle of Ortona BTW ]
and 1812, the War tha Forged a Nation by Walter Borneman for the US ' version ' of events.

and, if anyone is actually interested in Canada's military history [ and we do have one! ] I recommend The Canadian Way of War by Lt. Col. Bernd Horn and a book on the ' secret war' in the 'recent' Bosnia/Kosovo UN debacle.. by Carol Off : The Ghosts of Medak Pocket about the Canadians fighting Serbian/Croat ..18 hour firefight no one has ever heard about...

enjoy

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rocketeer,

The biography on US Air Force Col. John Boyd, aptly named Boyd is a must read.

Not just because it is a good read with all of the necessary ingredients that anyone will appreciate that likes military reading, but it will totally open eyes on today's arguments of warfare doctrine.

Much of why Rumsfeld was so hated before 9/11 even happened, was his stance on military reformation, and Boyd covers that reformation back to the 1950s.

Also A Bloody Business was good but not spectacular. A book about the private military contractors in Iraq. It's more informative than entertaining, but it's the only straight forward presentation I've read about on PMCs. The rest are merely organs for the author's political agenda (read that as axe grinding).

Has anyone read AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes from Military Service – and How It Hurts Our Country (Harper-Collins, 2006)?

I read an excerpt and it sounds like it might be worth reading the whole thing.

It`s fiction, but W.E.B. Griffin is REALLY good!
Most of his stuff is based on WWII. I haven`t read a bood of his I didn`t like. Very in depth and realistic. True to the "soldier" not some
Hollywood idea of what it`s like.