Posted on Mar 10, 2021
What books do you recommend for personal and professional development?
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I've made a point to read two books a month this year.
As of today, I've read:
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose & James Lindsay
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
and have recently started reading Beyond Order by Jordan Peterson
Additionally, I've made a point to go between fiction and nonfiction, balancing entertainment and development. I have a handful of novels currently sitting on my shelves to read this year but need some recommendations for nonfiction.
What have you read that you would recommend? Why?
As of today, I've read:
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose & James Lindsay
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
and have recently started reading Beyond Order by Jordan Peterson
Additionally, I've made a point to go between fiction and nonfiction, balancing entertainment and development. I have a handful of novels currently sitting on my shelves to read this year but need some recommendations for nonfiction.
What have you read that you would recommend? Why?
Literature
Professional Development
Personal Development
Reading
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 5
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More than you can count- here are must reads= authors or titles; Sun T Zu; Book of 5 Rings,; The utility of Force; Clausewitz.
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The mission, the men, and me. Always my top recommendation. Written by Pete Blaber. He details that all 3 are important and how to fulfill the commitment to each.
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Since you are trying to flip back and forth, so does my list..
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Simply put, one of the best books I have read. Plus I think that Michael Valentine Smith's concept of religion is a VERY good one to adopt, especially as it pertains to dealing with our fellow human beings. It literally changed my life.
We Were Soldiers Once, and Young by Hal Moore and Joey Galloway.
Made into a movie with Mel Gibson. Movie was good, but it left SO MUCH out. Just an awesome, awesome look at the realities of combat in Vietnam, but more importantly the realities of Soldiers who cared about each other.
Ready Player One by Ernest Kline
Just an entertaining read with lots of nostalgia for 80s kids. Movie did NOT do it justice. At all.
Pick a Religious Text - Bible, Qu'ran, Tao Te Ching, Buddhist Sutras, etc.
Few things will help you understand a people or their culture like understanding their religion will
Any of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett
Novelized satire at its best. Pratchett's Discworld is completely different from ours - except that people are the same everywhere. (There are a couple of Discworld movies out there - they are utter shite, do not judge the books by these.) Pratchett's ability to completely mock our world and our institutions without being cruel or mean-spirited and maintaining a genuine sense of humor and wonder is top-notch.
War in a Time of Peace by David Halbertsam
A great look at the end of the Cold War and the war in the Balkans, how it happened, and why it happened
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Recommended for all career military folks. A great look at military absurdity. Totally farcical, but having served, I could relate to almost all of the farce.
Rising Sons by Bill Yenne
Awesome perspective of Japanese-Amercian Soldiers in WWII. It looks at the uncommon patriotism in the face of persecution, uncommon valor in their service, and the unrecognized/ enderappreciated contributions they made. It really helped to open *my* eyes regarding a lot of overt racism back then that continues into the subconscious and unconscious racism of today. Plus some really good war stories
Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris
This one has drawn some criticism, but.... Ferraris is an American woman who spent time in Saudi Arabia as the wife of a Saudi businessman (and all of the cultural implications therein). She did not spend a LOT of time there, but she uses her experiences with her Saudi-Palestinian Bedouin family to write this COMPLETELY FICTIONAL (some people thought she was trying to write a true crim novel - not AT ALL so) novel about a young Saudi girl who goes missing. There was some criticism from Saudis saying how she got everything wrong, culturally, and I am guessing that she wasn't as accurate as a native would have been. Nonetheless, I believe that she got the BASICS right. All of that being said, the tale she spins is entertaining enough, regardless of cultural accuracy or innaccuracy. And when taking into account culture, it become (in my opinion) fascinating. I actual wrote one of my papers for college comparing the "radical" religious concepts found in the book to fundamentalist Christian and Jewish laws/rules (surprise! they aren't all that different!).
All of the above fiction I found to be profound in SOME way - it changed at least a LITTLE bit of how I thought about things.
Then there is the just "fun" fiction....
Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
A Song of Ice and Fire (commonly known as Game of Thrones) - Martin
Wheel of Time - Jordan
Little Women - Alcott
Any book ever written by Heinlein
Dragonriders of Pern - McCafferry
Any book by Misty Lackey
Hope this is helpful
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Simply put, one of the best books I have read. Plus I think that Michael Valentine Smith's concept of religion is a VERY good one to adopt, especially as it pertains to dealing with our fellow human beings. It literally changed my life.
We Were Soldiers Once, and Young by Hal Moore and Joey Galloway.
Made into a movie with Mel Gibson. Movie was good, but it left SO MUCH out. Just an awesome, awesome look at the realities of combat in Vietnam, but more importantly the realities of Soldiers who cared about each other.
Ready Player One by Ernest Kline
Just an entertaining read with lots of nostalgia for 80s kids. Movie did NOT do it justice. At all.
Pick a Religious Text - Bible, Qu'ran, Tao Te Ching, Buddhist Sutras, etc.
Few things will help you understand a people or their culture like understanding their religion will
Any of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett
Novelized satire at its best. Pratchett's Discworld is completely different from ours - except that people are the same everywhere. (There are a couple of Discworld movies out there - they are utter shite, do not judge the books by these.) Pratchett's ability to completely mock our world and our institutions without being cruel or mean-spirited and maintaining a genuine sense of humor and wonder is top-notch.
War in a Time of Peace by David Halbertsam
A great look at the end of the Cold War and the war in the Balkans, how it happened, and why it happened
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Recommended for all career military folks. A great look at military absurdity. Totally farcical, but having served, I could relate to almost all of the farce.
Rising Sons by Bill Yenne
Awesome perspective of Japanese-Amercian Soldiers in WWII. It looks at the uncommon patriotism in the face of persecution, uncommon valor in their service, and the unrecognized/ enderappreciated contributions they made. It really helped to open *my* eyes regarding a lot of overt racism back then that continues into the subconscious and unconscious racism of today. Plus some really good war stories
Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris
This one has drawn some criticism, but.... Ferraris is an American woman who spent time in Saudi Arabia as the wife of a Saudi businessman (and all of the cultural implications therein). She did not spend a LOT of time there, but she uses her experiences with her Saudi-Palestinian Bedouin family to write this COMPLETELY FICTIONAL (some people thought she was trying to write a true crim novel - not AT ALL so) novel about a young Saudi girl who goes missing. There was some criticism from Saudis saying how she got everything wrong, culturally, and I am guessing that she wasn't as accurate as a native would have been. Nonetheless, I believe that she got the BASICS right. All of that being said, the tale she spins is entertaining enough, regardless of cultural accuracy or innaccuracy. And when taking into account culture, it become (in my opinion) fascinating. I actual wrote one of my papers for college comparing the "radical" religious concepts found in the book to fundamentalist Christian and Jewish laws/rules (surprise! they aren't all that different!).
All of the above fiction I found to be profound in SOME way - it changed at least a LITTLE bit of how I thought about things.
Then there is the just "fun" fiction....
Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
A Song of Ice and Fire (commonly known as Game of Thrones) - Martin
Wheel of Time - Jordan
Little Women - Alcott
Any book ever written by Heinlein
Dragonriders of Pern - McCafferry
Any book by Misty Lackey
Hope this is helpful
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SFC Casey O'Mally
SGT Joseph Gunderson - I USED to read a minimum of a book a week. These days I am down to one every few months, and it is almost all "pure pleasure" (i.e. books on the bottom of my list). If you have any particular interests (like I am personally into sci-fi and fantasy - and they are two DIFFERENT genres, thank you!!!!), let me know, and I will see if I have any recommendations in that lane.
Most of my non-fiction reading has either been in the lanes of military history or religion, but I also have read some other non-fiction.
Most of my non-fiction reading has either been in the lanes of military history or religion, but I also have read some other non-fiction.
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