There is an interesting piece on Medium.com recently about basic training and encouraging new soldiers to read. I read, and read a lot, and have always tried to encourage others to read, not only my fellow soldiers when I was in the Army, but people in general.
I find that the idea of having a reading list and free copies of said books available to basic trainees to read in their less-than-copious free time is an awesome idea and I am chagrined that I did not do it when I was a Drill Sergeant at Fort Knox many years ago.
I don’t necessarily agree with all the titles on the list, I would remove some and add a few others, mot notably Storm of Steel
The original article is linked below. KNUCKLE-DRAGGERS NEED TO READ TOO:
26 November 2014 at 18:11
Years ago when I was employed by a government agency, I had a young Army sergeant tell me that the best thing about serving in the military was the constant encouragement he received to read and learn. He claimed that prior to joining the Army, he had never been encouraged to learn.
27 November 2014 at 09:17
The Army has generally encouraged soldiers to read in the Modern Era. Every other year or so the Army Chief of Staff releases a professional reading list. It used to be broken down by fank groups, i.e. lower enlisted, junior NCO, Junior officer etc. but the new list is a general list aimed at all ranks.
I still find the number of people who have never voluntarily read a book to be amazing. Maybe I have difficulty with that because I am generally reading anywhere from 2-4 books simultaneously.