ON KILLING: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society" by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman (1995). I asked my college students to assign me books I wouldn't find on my own, and so here it is. The absolutely very last book I would ever had picked up, assigned to me by a particularly intense student-veteran filled with harsh facts about about how killing people affects the people who kill them.
Reading this book written by a former army Ranger and psychology professor at West Point was like staring at the sun too long on a dare.
The pages cut me invisibly, leaving scars I can't stop picking at.
Killing isn't an easy subject to shake, and it's equally impossible to walk away from.
I've carried around for almost a week, reading pages here, there, then swatting away the sadness that comes with the knowledge laid out so scientifically in this brilliant, mechanically precise and compelling monograph.
I refuse to summarize this book for you. If you know me, you know I read every page and every word. The look in my eye, my edgy demeanor this week, both betray me.
This book is important, powerful and a must read.
