I Like Books...

Over the past few months, Chris and some my other friends have been recommending Marcus Luttrell's Lone Survivor, an astounding tale about a young Navy Seal's brush with death in the mountains of Afghanistan.

First off, this is an amazing story. Regardless of writing ability or marketing or overall theme, the story itself is worth the time. The book isn't just about Marcus Luttrell, but rather about the brave men who fought alongside him and in multiple cases, saved his life. But the book has a lot of that other stuff working for it.

The book reads pretty fast. Rather than get bogged down in a lot of military jargon, the reader can feel pretty comfortable with any particular terminology that might arise.

I also found Luttrell's mini-rants on the state of the American media to be spot-on. Here's a guy, in the trenches, risking his life day in and day out; and he knows what's up. He knows what's really happening in the streets of a war torn country. He knows what happens when he and his team stare down the barrel of a gun. And he's saying things that more people need to be saying.

I don't think your personal position on the war would prevent you from appreciating what this solider has to say.

If there's anything I didn't dig about the book it would have to be the obvious arrogance. (Luttrell recognizes it, even, but still makes use of it.) The first few chapters are supposed to awe me at the strength, endurance, never die attitude of the U.S. Navy SEALs. And it did. But, I think I would have been just as impressed with maybe fewer paragraphs on "why we're awesome."

The book's got some profanity (if such things concern you,) but it is a fantastic book. A great story, a pretty in-depth look at Pashtun mountain culture and a surprising assessment of American media's influence on military affairs.

To buy the book, click here!

Anybody else read it?