The Time Traveller's Wife... on the prairies?
I've just returned from a week living with a group of Merseyside soldiers on the vast prairies of Canada - where they were training for a potential stint in Afghanistan.
All our lads were brilliant sports - happy to be interviewed and appear in our videos - and they all made me feel right at home, albeit in a rather large tank.
The Canadian prairies are a hostile place. There's rattlesnakes, black widow spiders and the odd elk wandering the plains...
We slept under the stars, rattled around in our dusty armoured fighting vehicle (that's a tank to you and me) and ate our rations warmed up in the equivalent of an oversized kettle fuelled by the engine of our tank.
I was surprised to find that you can have quite a bit of downtime when you're at war, or training for war anyway.
You can sit in the back of your tank at camp for hours - awaiting instructions, waiting for essential repairs or simply recovering from the ungodly hours you've already worked.
A lot of the soldiers I met used this time as an opportunity to watch a DVD or listen to their i-pods but, of course, I was interested in those reading books.
I found one soldier buried in a copy of 'Tales of the Supernatural' which had one of those faded blue hardback covers - the ones with the old-fashioned gold embedded writing - and a faded £2 book sale sticker on the outside.
He told me he'd found the book lying around, having finished his previous book and, miles from civilisation, was desperate for something new to read.
Sensing a kindred spirit, we got to talking and besides having read the Chris Ryan books - I guess the ex-SAS soldier's books are an obvious choice for soldiers - he told me he'd just finished reading and enjoying The Time Traveller's Wife.
Now, I wouldn't have thought that book was an obvious choice for a stint 'in the field' - and he did tell me he borrowed Audrey Niffenegger's book from a fellow soldier who 'always reads girls' books' - which is a controversial comment in itself because I know plenty of men who love the book.
But it did get me thinking and this is an appeal to all the servicemen and women out there... what are you reading when you're on operations??
(Besides our newspaper of course... thanks to Sergeant Warren Fletcher for this pic)
Older/Newer
« Home wins Orange Prize | Resident Reader: Halewood Library »
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: The Time Traveller's Wife... on the prairies?.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://firstruleofbookclub.merseyblogs.co.uk/cgi-bin/mt421/mt-tb.cgi/131515
19 Comments
Leave a comment
Blog Authors
Vicki Kellaway - a Merseyside reporter who would happily spend her days lounging about and reading - if she won the lottery. Vicki's in a book club, which consists of six girls who meet once a month to discuss their latest tome, drink a few glasses of wine and eat far too much cheese.
My postings |
Maps mainly...
Anything by JT Edson.
Seven Pillars of Wisdom - TE Lawrence
Anything by Sven Hassle.
The Book thief - Markus Zusak
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Maps
... anything available!
Interesting post. Thanks for visiting my blog, I've added you to my blogroll
Your soldiers may enjoy Giles Milton's book Paradise Lost - full of action and interst, while also showing how politicians cause so many unnecessary deaths for dubious ends.
When I was in I would read anything, at any time.
Anything warry went down well, especially flying stuff. Also fantasy - Stephen Donaldson and Anne McCaffrey.
I have read the Time travelers wife also, although its far from the normal stuff I read (Jeffery Deafer & Alex Kava) I was gripped by her imagination, certainly in my top 5 books. I am really looking forward to it coming out as a film later in the year.
Many books get passed around on detatchments, most crewrooms will have a few books written by Dan Brown and Andy McNab.
I read a couple of books by Antony Beevor whilst away. His stuff is fantastic for those interested in military history.
Just picked up his latest offering about D-Day
I read bullets! I make a point of keeping any with my name written on locked safely away from the nasty people!
I read Patricia Cornwell's 'Scarpetta' novels - I'm currently reading 'Book of the Dead'; I'm stringing it out a bit as I'm off to sandy places in just over a month and as she only has one more book after this in the series (Scarpetta), I'm gonna be stuffed whilst I'm away!
That said, I've just bought a stack of Ian Rankin novels (although I've never read his stuff before), so hopefully I'll have enough escapism to see me through...
I tend to take a few John Grisham's away with me whenever I am away on det for a read. If I get through whatever I have taken away I too tend to read just about whatever I can get my hands on.
I tend to read depressing books most of the time anyway, but I was even more drawn to them whilst in Basrah. I mean things along the lines of "a child called it" and "Broken".
Mainly because as crappy as being away from family and having nasty folks chuck bangy bang things at you, is. There is always someone worse off. I guess it helps me put things into perspective.
Once I'd finished the depressing books I started on some of the Tess Gerritson murder/medical thrillers for a bit of fiction escapism.
I usually read a good Factual navy book and Factual horseracing book ie HMS Leviathan and Seabiscuit
I think you may find that a lot of people will deny it vehemently in front of their mates, but all like to read books on the military both past and present. And never dismiss the power of Harry Potter, I once watched two blokes in the SBS get into a fistfight, because they couldn't decide over whose turn it was with the only copy of the latest episode available on a closed camp.
The usual Andy Mcnab, Chris Ryan, Jack Higgins, Dan Brown, Dale Brown
Enjoyed A Brief history of time by Stephen Hawkins
But Most Enjoyed the final Harry Potter book, I was in the FI at the time of release but managed to get the wife to Que up for 2 hours to get it at the release and get it straight in the post for me. Managed to read it in 3 days.
Hi Vicki, great angle for a story, chuck!
You'll find service people are much like anyone else with their reading habits. We have eclectic reading tastes, not all confined to the standard military fare, although admittedly that does form quite a high percentage! I guess we want to know about others experiences in a military theatre, see if there's anything to learn from them or to spot the perennial bull merchant (of whom there are many)! Alternatively, to see how our brothers and sisters did warfare in previous conflicts, for much the same reasons as above.
Personally, I have several books on the go. At my bedside I've got Apache, Jezza Clarkson, All the King's Men, The Kite Flyer, an Ian Rankin compendium, The Fifty Years War - Israel and the Arabs, Confronting Iran (always a good idea to keep ahead of the game!), and the Collins Dictionary and Thesaurus for all them really BIG words. I also bought Mrs S a DS Lite with the 100 Classic Book collection which I'm working my way thru!
And guess what, in Basra, I've even seen tough squaddies musing over The Bible, with no members of the Gideon Society in sight. In Afghanistan, it's not unknown to see guys reading The Koran for knowledge and understanding. So there you have it, there are a lot of very thoughtful people out there enjoying all sorts of books! Good luck with the research.
I have several books on the go. At my bedside I've got Apache, Jezza Clarkson, All the King's Men, The Kite Flyer,
DOH
Obviously you twigged my deliberate error -I meant The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
A top book and film!
Smiter
I love the Kite Runner! Wasn't so bothered about A Thousand Splendid Suns though...
Thanks for all your posts, reckon I've got myself a few recommendations here...