Cadets: don't know what to do this summer? (2nd annual edition)

[dwb]

Read a book.

Reading stimulates your mind, it makes you think about things you wouldn't otherwise think about, or think in ways you don't normally think.  Reading requires concentration and focus.  Turn off the TV, the iPod, the cell phone, and the Xbox, and curl up on a quiet summer night with a good book.

What's the big deal?  Only 43 percent of 18-to-24 year olds had read any literature in 2002, down from 53 percent in 1992.  Nationwide, only about 57 percent of all Americans had read a book that year, with less than half (47 percent) reading a work of fiction (source).  A free society that does not take lifelong learning seriously is not going to stay a free society.  The liberty you take for granted is just as much threatened by a willfully ignorant public as it is by enemies abroad.

Short on cash?  Library cards are usually free, or have only a nominal fee.

Don't know where to start?  Alternate between fiction and nonfiction, until you decide which kinds of books you like to read most.  I generally go for a mix of biographies, history, contemporary issues, and fiction.

Not sure what to read?  Book club or bestseller lists can be daunting, so here's a very small list to get you started.  Pick one and go.

• Military Studies: The Forever War, by Dexter Filkins
  
• Aerospace:  Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War, by Robert Coram
  
• General Nonfiction: Columbine, by Dave Cullen
  
• Fiction: Trauma, by Patrick Mcgrath
  
• Extra Credit: Great Powers: America and the World After Bush, by Thomas P.M. Barnett
  
  

Enough excuses.  Pick up a book and read.

(For those wondering, I am currently reading The Ice Diaries: The True Story of One of Mankind's Greatest Adventures by William R. Anderson)

[davedove]

A good place for cadets (and other CAP members) is the Read to lead program:

http://members.gocivilairpatrol.com/cap_university/professional_development/read_to_lead/index.cfm

I have read several of the books; some can be a bit dry but others are very interesting.

But the important thing is to just read.

[notaNCO forever]

 I usually read one or two books a week in the summer. I must be in the forty three percent. A good fiction writer is Clive Cussler, if you like action adventure and water; he also has some non fiction books about different ships recovered from the oceans

[Cecil DP]

Jeffrey Archer is the best for telling a story, and his endings all have a twist at the end