2013 Readings Reviewed

As I've mentioned previously, I never read as much as I hope to in any given year. I think last year was probably better than most. Here's what I read in 2013.

Perhaps my biggest focus was on literature for my dissertation on the Dhofar Rebellion. I'd started reading Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger in 2012, and finished it in June (or so) of 2013. It's autobiographical, about Thesiger's travels in southern Arabia in the 1940's, and I used it for pre-war context in my dissertation. I also read With the SAS and Other Animals: A Vet's Experiences During the Dhofar War 1974 by Andrew Higgins. I can't remember whether I finished In the Service of the Sultan by Ian Gardiner in 2012 or '13, but it's entirely possible that I finished it in early 2013.

I started Intelligence Power in Peace and War by Michael Herman in 2012, but I'm almost positive that I didn't finish it until January of 2013, so I'm going to count it. I had something like six weeks between the end of classes in December of 2012, and exams in January of 2013, and I should have studied more, but just couldn't find the motivation. (In retrospect, I should have started going to "my Starbucks" in Aberdeen's city center earlier than I did, but hind sight is always twenty-twenty.)

I figured that I was done reading Navy SEAL autobiographies a long time ago, but I read one of them in 2013 at the urging of Lady Jaye. Having read No Easy Day in 2012, she also encouraged me to read American Sniper by Chris Kyle, which I finished in September. I thought No Easy Day was better, though I intend to use some quotes from American Sniper in an upcoming article I've been working on.

I reread one of my favorites, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, over the Summer. Definitely worth the time and effort, and now I associate the book with two places: the parking lot at a middle school in my hometown, where I read part of it the first time in 2000; and this bench in St. Nicholas Kirkyard in Aberdeen, where I read a significant portion of it one afternoon during the Summer of '13.

I received a copy of The Gordon Highlanders: A Concise History by Trevor Royle to give me some context into my research on Orcadians who served with the regiment during the Great War, and I probably finished it in November or early December.

The last book I finished, in less than twenty-four hours, was Not A Match: My True Tales of Online Dating Disasters. It was more depressing than amusing, so don't recommend it.

So that brings us to 2014, and a couple of nights ago I finished What Went Wrong? by Bernard Lewis. It was a good one to start the year on because it only took me about three weeks of semi-concerted reading to get through, and it was really informative about the roots of modern tensions between Western and Middle Eastern civilizations. As I'm currently reading the CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-301 Study Guide by Darril Gibson and Design and Evaluation of Physical Protection Systems by Mary Lynn Garcia (both of which are meant to facilitate near-term employment prospects), I'll probably stand fast on other books for a few weeks until I can finish at least one of them (probably Gibson). In the near future, though, I'll be reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card with Lady Jaye. My next read after that will likely be Ottoman Empire and Islamic Tradition by Norman Itzkowitz, mainly because it's short and will complete my near-term reading requirements on the Ottoman Empire, allowing me to move to other topics.