The books he carries
This little photo on Facebook is generating some traffic. It’s a shot of books in the backpack of a U.S. soldier deployed in Afghanistan. We can’t make out all of them, but I applaud the thinking behind two of them: Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” (which must be required reading in every college literature or creative-writing class, because everyone I know in one of those has read it) and “The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre.”
I would add “Cat’s Cradle” by Kurt Vonnegut (and not, notably, “Slaughterhouse Five,” probably best left for reading when one isn’t actively deployed).
What would you add, if you were fighting a miserable war in a terrible faraway clime?
August 18th, 2011 at 6:35 pm
I couldn’t tell you where or when I read “The Things They Carried.” I don’t even imagine I would get close in guessing the year. And I know I don’t have a copy anywhere in my house. But, my God, that book.
August 20th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
For sheer fun I would add “I Shudder” by Paul Rudnick. I’m almost done reading it and have enjoyed his gripes and rants, stories of having his plays and movie scripts produced, encounters with his interesting friends, and excerpts from the diaries of his alter-ego, Elyot Vionnet.
If something a bit heavier, but not too much, was wanted, I’d throw in “Cannery Row” by John Steinbeck. And for perspective on war I’d include the very readable “The Guns of August” by Barbara Tuchman.
August 24th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
When I went into the Service the 1st time I took a copy of D.H. Lawrence’s THE RAINBOW.
Go figure.