Reading Through Afghanistan

Everyone ever deployed has their own way of getting through deployment and the free time that goes along with it.  Even if most of your time is spent working, you’re not always working and there is very little to do when you’re not.  No popping over to Wal-Mart or to a great Mexican restaurant or the pool or the IMAX theater or the mall…

Some watch TV or hundreds of DVDs, some play video games, some work out, some just sleep.  What did I do mostly, even if partaking of the above occasionally?

Read.

A lot.  And I kept a list of the wildly varied books read while deployed.  Many I took with me or had shipped over.  Many I picked up around the FOB as there are shelves of books everywhere available for reading.  Many of the books I had read before but went back for a revisit, enjoying them all over again.  Many are not my usual genre but when you need something to read, just about anything will do.  Some were massive thousand-plus page tomes, some just short novels.

So how much reading did I do in my thirteen months of deployment?  Final count is one hundred and six books (106 – that averages out to over eight books per month), and I’ve listed them below:

BAGRAM

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Wild Orchids by Jude Devereaux

The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Irish Tiger by Andrew Greeley

Night by Elie Wiesel  (Awesome if haunting first-hand account of the holocaust.)

The Tall Stranger by Louis L’Amour

Duma Key by Stephen King  (The first Stephen King I’ve ever read.  Need more.)

Changing Habits by Debbie Macomber

The Reason for Sports by Ted Kluck  (I usually like something about every book I’ve ever read, whether it be a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel or popcorn read.  This one?  Bleah.)

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

The Unforgiving Minute by Craig Mullaney  (A soldier’s story – great read.)

Saving Sailor by Renee Riva

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) by JRR Tolkien

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen  (For the hundredth time…)

Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin

Loon by Jack McLean

Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

Bleachers by John Grisham

Tipperary by Frank Delaney

Such A Pretty Face by Cathy Lamb

The Quilter’s Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini

Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen

Leader Business by COL Tom Magness

A Gift to Last by Debbie Macomber

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Good one and a Pulitzer winner.)

Darcy’s Story by Janet Aylmer

Teacher Man by Frank McCourt

Mohawk by Richard Russo

Mr. Darcy’s Daughters by Elizabeth Aston

Caroline Isle by Jude Devereaux

Duty and Desire by Pamela Aiden

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

Have A Little Faith by Mitch Albom

The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger  (This is considered a classic?)

Belong to Me by Marisa de la Torme

Sammy’s Hill by Kristin Gore

A Christmas Visitor by David Saperstein and George Samerjan

Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey  (Gotta love ZG!)

SHINDAND

After the Bugles by Elmer Kelton

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson (I hear this will be a movie soon.)

An Angel for Emily by Jude Deveraux

Skeleton Man by Tony Hillerman

The Rider of Lost Creek by Louis L’Amour

The Postcard by Beverly Lewis

The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks

Hannah’s Hope by Karen Kingsbury

Christmas Letters by Debbie Macomber

Susannah’s Garden by Debbie Macomber

Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

Temptation by Jude Devereaux

Love, Charleston by Beth Webb Hart

The Associate by John Grisham

Listening Woman by Tony Hillerman

The Painted House by John Grisham

The King of Torts by John Grisham

Badger Boy by Elmer Kelton

The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume I by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume II by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The City & The City by China Mieville (Bewilderingly bizarre parallel universe murder mystery…)

The Odd Women by George Gissing  (Victorian era novel about unmarried women – does not meet the standard set by Austen.)

Irish Mist by Andrew Greeley

Autobiography of a Wardrobe by Elizabeth Kendall

Grace at Low Tide by Beth Webb Hart

Adelaide Piper by Beth Webb Hart

Tuscan Light by Mark Gordon Smith (Random, rambling and dull.  Nevertheless, my resolve to explore Italy some day has been strengthened…)

Where The Heart Is by Billie Letts  (Better than the movie – surprising.)

Chateau of Echoes by Siri L. Mitchell  (Awesome first novel by a military wife.)

The Hammer of Eden by Ken Follett  (Good read, but still prefer Pillars of the Earth.)

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas

The Appeal by John Grisham

Europe by Eurail by LaVerne Ferguson-Kosinski

Caribbean by James A. Michener

A Promise to Remember by Kathryn Cushman

Rooms by James L. Rubart

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Girl on the Beach: A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd  (This was a wonderful discovery.)

The Daughter of the Commandant by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

The Cubicle Next Door by Siri L. Mitchell

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

World Without End by Ken Follett

Moon Over Tokyo by Siri L. Mitchell

Something Beyond the Sky by Siri L. Mitchell

Straight Man by Richard Russo

The Shack by Wm. Paul Young

Kissing Adrien by Siri L. Mitchell

Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones

The Far Side of the World by Patrick O’Brian

The Sonora Noose by Jackson Lowry  (Awesome and gritty western by Bob Vardeman – Lowry is a new pseudonym.)

A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving

She Walks in Beauty by Siri Mitchell

A Heart Most Worthy by Siri Mitchell

Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson

Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson

An Impartial Witness: A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd

A Matter of Justice: An Inspector Rutledge Mystery by Charles Todd

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith  (Not what I expected.)

Like the Flowing River by Paulo Coelho  (A collection of stories by an awesome author whom I can’t believe I’ve never read before.)

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years by Julie Andrews  (I don’t usually read biographies or autobiographies, but I’ve always liked her and really enjoyed this.  Who can believe Julie Andrews is 76 years old?  She’s ageless.)

Sea Wolf by Jack London

I like to read… 🙂