On Reading Lists

'Tis the season to buy things, to be certain. If you're stumped what to get someone this Christmas, here are a few ideas, contributed by quite an eclectic mix of bloggers:

I scanned through a few "Top 10" and "Top 100" lists, and noticed that a book called "The Good Soldiers" by David Finkel keeps popping up. I hadn't heard of this book, but I think I'll check it out.

• On Violence's Christmas Recommendations
• Tom Ricks, "So You're Heading to Afghanistan". (Speaking of which, his recent book, The Gamble, wound up as #11 on Omnivoracious' list of the best books of 2009)
• 101st Airborne reading list for Afghanistan (c/o Tom Ricks)
• Hidden gem: Gen. David Petraeus' reading list (you need to scroll to the bottom), courtesy of Foreign Policy Online
• My summer reading list in Iraq, 2009. As an interesting note, I noticed that someone from Wasilla, Alaska wound up on that page after Googling something to the effect of "kindle books iraq". I only know of one person who resides in Wasilla, Alaska, and that individual does have a son who (at the time) served in Iraq. I never, for the life of me, would have thought she'd actually be interested in a book (unless she wrote it). Truly, blogging thrusts me into all sorts of bizarre situations.
• Andrew Exum's Counterinsurgency Reading List
• US Army War College's Irregular Warfare reading list (h/t Andrew Exum)
• Boss Mongo recommends a series of books, which, despite having a bit of a bizarre premise (The Islamic States of America?), does point out the differences between the branches of Islam quite well, and is an exciting read. It's a trilogy so far, with the first book being Robert Ferrigno's Prayers for the Assassin. Boss Mongo says he enjoys reading the series, when he's not out bludgeoning sharks with his bare hands (seriously, Boss Mongo is who Chuck Norris wishes he was).
• EDIT: Let's not forget The Great Satan's Girlfriend's COIN reading list.

Focus: I know I've accidentally left off a few reading lists, and for that, I apologize in advance. Please, give me a link to your Christmas reading list so I can add it here.