What Are You Currently Reading?

Working my way through finals but I swung by the library and picked up Chosen Solider. I am three chapters in, really great so far. More and more I read the more and more intrigued I get.

A few days ago I finished The Martian and it was a nice fictional read, and a great book to break from the monotony of textbook readings. Compared the the movie I felt it added more depth to the characters; the choice of words used (especially swear words used in circumstances that dictated it) really emphasized just how high-stakes it was. I think the movie lacked this as it seemed emotion was either turned up to 11 or completely dialed back to zero in some scenes.
 
Read: The Next Millionaire Next Door (2017) by Thomas J. Stanley and Sarah Stanley Fallow
Reading: Stop Acting Rich (2009) by Thomas J. Stanley

The first was a Christmas gift from my financial advisor. It’s a data update on his original work The Millionaire Next Door (1996). It reinforced a lot of the hard and expensive life lessons I’ve learned since being commissioned, and also reassured me to stick on the right path. It’s practical, some updates on tables from their research. Best lines were about the importance of discipline, patience, getting along with others, and hard work. It referenced the original and Stop Acting Rich so I got both when I was done. Financial advisor said Stop Acting Rich was her favorite so I started with that.

There are large portions of the book where I see my old lifestyle. As my Dad says, “education is expensive.” I breathe sighs of relief that I quit those bad habits and started listening to those who know. Some of you on this board, from the finance threads to chance conversations and link ups were really helpful to me. I see more of myself in the right financial freedom path Dr. Stanley talks about. I’m bit a minimalist or extremely frugal, but good choices have me in a position where I’m not stressed about money, say for a plane flight home. I remember when that wasn’t the case. That felt worse than combat some days.

Anyway, it’s a good place to start and a fast read.
 
Finally done with school and able to read for fun again. Cracking open "On the psychology of military incompetence" by Dr. Norman F. Dixon.
Interesting read so far.
 
Just finished Chosen Solider by Dick Couch. What a read, very insightful. Obviously there has been changes to the Q course, but the learning potential sounds incredible. Reading it makes me want it that much more.

I have a 15+ hour drive this weekend so I'll be listening to The Guerrilla Factory by Tony Schwalm.

ETA: Mod edit to fix a reported typo because I'm feeling nice. AWP
 
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Researching for a good book on the Vietnam war for the wife to read, she does not know much about the war and looking for book that will have good account. If anyone has some good suggestions, please let me know. Thanks All
 
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Chickenhawk by Robert Mason is always a nice read for Vietnam. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes, while fiction, isn't bad. If you want to go outside of the US, In Good Company by Gary McKay and Trackers by Peter Haran are in my opinion two of the better Australian books on the war.
 
digrar said:
Chickenhawk by Robert Mason is always a nice read for Vietnam.
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One of my all-time favorites on that particular generation, to this day I still feel like I can sit at the controls of a Huey and have a half ass idea of what I was doing!
 
digrar said:
Chickenhawk by Robert Mason is always a nice read for Vietnam. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes, while fiction, isn't bad. If you want to go outside of the US, In Good Company by Gary McKay and Trackers by Peter Haran are in my opinion two of the better Australian books on the war.
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Prodigals by Richard Taylor.

Second the vote of Chickenhawk. Also novel The Lionheads by Josiah Bunting
 
Finished The Guerrilla Factory by Tony Schwalm. I was surprised by the amount of detail given for certain phases (especially SERE school). The recounting of the officer going through the Q-Course that mentioned they wanted a Green Beret as a stepping stone to something greater really stood out to me. Schwalm tells the officer that Special Forces is not a stepping stone to anything, it's the end game. Not only that, but the potential soldiers under the officer's command deserved a leader that didn't see his role as a stepping stone. This has stuck with me ever since I read it.

Both books I've read about SFAS and SFQC have focused on the officer route; I'm on the hunt to find one from the enlisted perspective.
 
Enjoying Frank Herbert again after 30 years. Almost done with Dune. The next two in the series standing by.

BTW, the movie Dune, if you ever have a chance to watch it, don't. It's the worst POS ever made, an insult to the books. It would take somebody like Peter Jackson or Ridley Scott to do it right.
 
I watched the movies before I read the book. To include the SyFy remake.

Never got past the first book in the series, been wanting to go back and do that. I watched the original again after reading the book, and it's just super hard to get how detailed Herbert was in even that Movie Epic size. Like we're seeing it now in GoT with the show producers just punting.

For anyone who has read the Red Rising books, Dark Age is out in July.
 
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Just got a new book called Wintering. It's a true Minnesotan novel and I'm excited to read it.

I appreciate when a book's setting is as accurate as it can be. I was a little disappointed by the last Minnesota novel I read (by a Minnesotan, no less) that definitely fell short in the setting department. In The Lake of the Woods, well... I think one could guess where it took place. I've been to Angle Inlet, and unfortunately O'Brien really didn't portray it as well as he could have. Geography matters!

Anyway, I hope this one is better.
 
Ocoka said:
BTW, the movie Dune, if you ever have a chance to watch it, don't. It's the worst POS ever made, an insult to the books. It would take somebody like Peter Jackson or Ridley Scott to do it right.
Click to expand...

Someone like, say, Dennis Villanueve (Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049)?

Denis Villeneuve's Dune won't be anything like David Lynch's version
Denis Villeneuve is remaking Dune, and that’s a good thing


p.s. I just dropped raw URLs in my message body and it auto-converted them to properly formatted, hyperlinked article titles - very cool!
 

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