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“I refuse to call this a war. World War II was a war. This is a fight. And a dirty one at that. The way I see it, our enemy simply wants to kill as many Americans as possible, thereby convincing the CNN-watching public that the price is just too great … It’s cheap and has a good chance of working. I pray it doesn’t.”

That’s an excerpt from Jason Christopher Hartley's Iraq War memoir, Just Another Soldier.

No matter what you think about this conflict, you need to understand it. Too many Americans are dying out there, and writers cannot ignore this story.

Today, Hartley's reading list can help you think and write about this war, sharing his literary influences in the process.

Welcome my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
You wrote a memoir about your experiences as a soldier. How long did it take you to turn that overwhelming experience into a memoir? Who are your influences? In your opinion, what are the best books for people to read to understand the conflict in Iraq better?

Jason Christopher Hartley:
Just Another Soldier is composed of about 50% of stuff I wrote in Iraq and 50% of stuff I wrote when I got back. Continue reading...

It took me a few months to realize I had a book contract that I had to fulfill, a few months to write it, then another two months to finish writing it.  It was a really good experience overall, but I won't bore you with details.  It's the thing I want most to talk about with other writers.

My influences are Henry Miller, Dostoyevsky, J.D. Salinger, Bret Easton Ellis, Dave Eggers, and Hunter S. Thompson.

I have to plug books written by soldiers: My War by Colby Buzzell, Last True Story I'll Ever Tell by John Crawford, Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams, and Chasing Ghosts by Paul Rieckhoff.