Reading Update

This afternoon I finished reading The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis. I'm not sure how much of it I actually retained, but what I did retain, I liked. Lewis has a way of putting very big ideas in very short books, so that when you've read one of his books, you immediately feel like you need to read it again. It's also worth noting that I finished it in less than a week, which is a rarity for me.

Having also finished Bono in Conversation last Sunday, I have six days left to read something for professional development. If I can accomplish that, I will have completed at least one of my New Year's Resolution goals for this month: to read a total of two books, one for leisure, one for professional development, each month. Since I've already read a good part of it, I'm guessing that I'll probably finish FM 100-5: Operations. I'm around halfway through it, and it's a good, short read, so I can probably have it knocked out in the next couple of days, and certainly by the end of next week.

So, that leaves me with the task of figuring out ahead of time what book I'll follow up with. Since I've read two leisure books in a row, I think that I'll start April out with a second professional development read. Here are the options I'm looking at right now.

Hizbu'llah: Politics and Religion by Amal Saad-Ghorayeb

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden

The Influence of Sea Power on History by Alfred T. Mahan

MI6 by Stephen Dorril

Globalized Islam by Olivier Roy

I'm a little ways into that last book, but I'm leaning away from it. I'm actually sort of tempted to read either Mahan, Dorril, or Sun Tzu; the most ambitious would be Dorril, the least ambitious would be Sun Tzu. Luckily, I can get away with waiting a couple of days to decide. If anyone has some input, feel free to post it in comments.

Also, just out of curiosity: what are you reading right now?