Ernest Hemingway once said, “There is no friend as loyal as a book.”

Recently, we asked a fraternity of military veterans to name the books that they kept close at hand during their training in the states and their service overseas. The response generated a fairly diverse list of books and authors.

This isn’t a list of “books you should donate to veterans” or an “all veterans read this” kind of list. This is a smattering of novels that a select group of U.S. veterans chose to carry with them–and read–as they awaited their deployment orders and prepared for battle.

Foundation by AsimovIsaac Asimov

On a Pale Horse by Anthony
Piers Anthony

Dragonflight by McCaffrey
Anne McCaffrey

Starship Troopers by Heinlein
Robert Heinlein

Seven Novels by Verne
Jules Verne

The Lifehouse Trilogy by Robinson
Spider Robinson

Kornewolf by Egolf
Tristan Egolf

Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut

Inferno by Brown
Dan Brown

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey

A Clockwork Orange by Burgess
Anthony Burgess

Rainboe Six by Clancy
Tom Clancy

The Haunted Mesa by L'Amour
Louis L’Amour

Photo by Chris Beckett