BOOKS AND THE SOLDIER.

Enlisted men does read a good deal more and a good deal better books than many people think they does. What is liked to read and how the Army supplies it are detailed in this study of books at war. Men who rarely looked at a book before have become habitual readers in the Army. This, too, is especially true of soldiers overseas. Because of physical isolation, conditions of weather and terrain, the foreign language of the native population, or the nature of their work, they are often cut off from other forms of recreation. The problem of getting books to soldiers overseas has been met by the Army Special Services Division's Library Branch, with the over-all responsibility for providing reading material and library service for soldiers. With the exception of the Armed Services Editions and overseas editions of magazines, reading matter may be sent to a theater only in response to requisitions approved by the theater commander. The specially manufactured paperbound books known as Armed Services Editions were devised to fill the gaps in the distribution of normal-sized books and to insure that all troops overseas were regularly and amply supplied with reading material.