The author of “Make Your Bed” and, most recently, “Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations” says “All Quiet on the Western Front” is the one book that best “captures the nature of a soldier.”
What books are on your nightstand?
I generally have five to 10 books by my bed. Rarely do I find a book that “you just can't put down,” so I tend to bounce from genre to genre. I love science fiction and philosophy, and I almost always have a John D. MacDonald book on the shelf. Right now I am reading “The Three-Body Problem,” by Liu Cixin, “Fear and Trembling,” by Soren Kierkegaard, “The Ghost Writer,” by Philip Roth, “The Empty Copper Sea,” by MacDonald; and I always have the Holy Bible close by.
When and where do you like to read?
I like reading to be an experience. I often go to the Perry Castañeda Library on the campus of the University of Texas, Austin, and sit for hours in the stacks reading philosophy. Being physically around books makes the experience more powerful and absorbing. When I'm at home, I sit in a big leather chair, coffee next to me, and settle in for a long read.
What was the last truly great book you read?
“The Martian,” by Andy Weir. It was part science fiction, part philosophy, part comedy, part suspense; and above all, it had a great ending. I love endings where the good guy wins.
What books would we be surprised to find on your shelf?
René Descartes's “Principles of Philosophy,” the works of Kahlil Gibran and all manner of classic poetry: Longfellow, Whitman, Kipling.
What kind of reader were you as a child? Any favorites from that time or books you return to again and again?
I was not a big reader as a child. Most of my time was spent playing sports or being outside creating my own adventures. However, when I did read, it was books like Tom Swift, the Hardy Boys and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” I still go back and reread parts of “Huckleberry Finn.” As I got into high school I was “forced” to read the classics. My two favorites were Hemingway's “The Old Man and the Sea” and Alexandre Dumas's “The Count of Monte Cristo.”
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