Maybe I Read Too Much

I've started to notice that most of my posts fall into one of three categories  first lines, last lines or book reviews. I'm wondering if I'm reading too much. That being said, I've decided that 2013 is going to be all about the thriller. No more Dickens, no more Christie, no more anything but military style thrillers. There is a reason I'm going all thriller which I'm sure I'll expound on in this space as soon as I finish with all these first lines, last lines, and book reviews. To that end I offer the next first line:

LIGHT TROOPS— Eleven-Bravo light infantrymen, according to the United States Army’s MOS (military occupational specialty) system— are supposed to be “pretty” spit-and-polish troops with spotless uniforms and clean-shaven faces, but First Sergeant Sam Driscoll wasn’t one of those anymore, and hadn’t been for some time. The concept of camouflage often involved more than patterned BDUs. No, wait, they weren’t called that anymore, were they? Now they were called “Army combat uniforms,” ACUs. Same, same. 

Driscoll’s beard was fully four inches long, with enough flecks of white in it that his men had taken to calling him Santa— rather annoying to a man hardly thirty-six years old, but when most of your compatriots were an average of ten years younger than you . . . Oh, well. Could be worse. Could be “Pops” or “Gramps.”

Clancy, Tom; Blackwood, Grant - Dead or Alive

I like Clancy's early works, but have been cautiously hesitant about his later ones. I suspect they're a bit more "fluffy." Still, having read the opening sample before buying I was happy with what I read (perhaps due to the fact it was about some 2nd Battalion Rangers in Afghanistan). Now, a quarter way in, I'm starting to see fluff.