The Habbaniya bookshelf

Tony Perry, a staffer with the LA Times and regular visitor to Iraq, takes us on a tour of a typical bookshelf found in American soldier’s barracks on a recent trip to Iraq,

As I jump from base to base in Anbar province where the Marines are stationed, I always prowl the book collection. Some are nicely organized shelves tended by civilian employees; other collections are in boxes or spread on tables…
…My most surprising find was at a base in Ramadi: a hardback copy of Jean Bowie Shor’s 1955 book “After You, Marco Polo,” the tale of a young couple retracing the explorer’s trek from Venice to Beijing. I can’t remember which base it was, but two years ago I found Leon Uris’ “The Haj” (1984), his take on the modern Arab experience. link