Air Force Launches New Online Book Club

Maintaining a healthy reading habit builds strong, well-rounded, and informed Air Force leaders. Reading topics such as battle tactics, personnel management techniques, and interpersonal skills expands knowledge and wisdom. Reading diverse perspectives also expands understanding of situational, cultural, and ethical considerations for various situations.

Inspired by the several-decades-old Air Force Chief of Staff reading list, the Department of the Air Force (DAF) Libraries partnered with Professional Book Club (PBC) Guru—an online book management company—to create a new, free DAF-specific book club that offers discussions about a recently released book every ten weeks. Air Force personnel who desire greater reading engagement, conversation, and accountability in reading books on relevant military and leadership topics can join the DAF Leadership Book Club at https://www.pbc.guru/dafleadershiplibrary.

According to PBC Guru’s website, the goal of their moderation services is to “cultivate deeply connected and engaged communities through lifelong learning and professional development experiences.” All book club discussions are slated for an asynchronous virtual forum, enabling troops to participate (i.e., respond to questions, posts, and articles posted by a PBC moderator) how and when it is most convenient for their schedules. Access to the internet and base libraries or Hoopla or OverDrive streaming apps are required for participation.

Although reading lists are not a new concept for the Air Force, this innovative environment fosters a new era of engagement, interaction, and critical thinking conversations among Airmen. Many military leaders support strong reading habits, and each branch offers various lists curated by top-level leadership. On the Secretary of the Air Force (SECAF) Reading List website, SECAF Frank Kendall says, “America is in the midst of a strategic competition that’s as great of a challenge as we have faced in decades. We are competing with a well-resourced, strategic, authoritarian power that challenges the security, prosperity, and freedom that generations before us fought so hard to build.”

On the Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CSAF) Leadership Library website, CSAF Gen David W. Allvin emphasizes, “The pursuit of knowledge is a lifelong journey; we are never truly done learning as every experience and interaction offers an opportunity to expand our understanding of the world.”

In advocating for reading in a message to his troops, former U.S. Secretary of Defense and retired Marine Gen James N. Mattis says, “Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for how any problem has been addressed (successfully or unsuccessfully) before. It doesn’t give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead.”

“We should read as if our lives and the lives of our Soldiers depend upon it,” says Army University Press Director Army Col Todd A. Schmidt, Ph.D., in his March–April 2023 Letter from the Editor in Chief. “Military elites should exhibit an exceptionally strong and wide-ranging intellect that demonstrates a grasp of international relations, geography, and history, as well as a sophisticated understanding and comprehension of military doctrine, alliance relationships, national politics, bureaucratic politics, the interagency process, military-industrial relationships, leadership, culture, and current events,” he continues.

Additional reading lists are available and updated through the Libby app’s Air Force Catalog Guide. Lists include the SECAF Reading List, CSAF and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Leadership Library List, and Chief of Space Operations Reading List, available at https://libbyapp.com/library/dod/guide/professionalreading/0.

For more information about PBC Guru, visit the website at https://www.pbc.guru/.