Quote Originally Posted by Shek View Post
However, an even simpler step would be to make the CSA reading list free issue for those that asked for books. On the one hand, we publish lists of books that we say we want soldiers, NCOs, and officers to read, but then we don't grease the skids by making it minimal to no cost. While the cost of purchasing the books shouldn't strain an officer's budget, the implicit signal that is being sent is still it's not important since the Army isn't funding it.
Agree on this, but my unit did have a semi-recent CSA library in the S1 shop, where you could sign out the books. It was the bottom shelf of the S1's personal cubicle though, so unless you worked in S1 or were on staff, you probably did not go back there too much. BDE also had them available, and they were stored in the BDE Command Team secretary's office, right outside his and the CSM's doors. Not placed to sell well.

Leaders can force the issue and make their guys read a book for discussion. At OBC, my platoon was required to read A Message to Garcia, sign the inside cover, and pass it on to next guy. My first month at work, my commander asked me if I had ever read the book. I replied yes, he said good. From then on, any time I asked for guidance he would just say, "A Message to Garcia. LT Rowan, go do your job." We LTs then read Pegassus Bridge to prepare for our deployment trainup and determined the number one lesson from the book was don't be an Airborne PL, you probably won't last long. If leaders set reasonable timeline and pick good book, it will get read.