Jack Sheidler, a real estate developer and investor who owns Greenwood Properties, has lived in Bowling Green for 28 years. He was born in Ohio and went to school in the small town of McComb, later attending Huntington University in Huntington, Ind. Jack and his wife, Kimberly, have two sons, Kris and Ryan, and two grandchildren, Haley, 7, and Brady, 4.

Sheidler didn’t like reading as a youngster, in high school or in college, and didn’t really begin enjoying it until the age of 27 – but ever since he has been making up for lost time. He is currently reading Allan Eckert’s “The Conquerors, Volume 3,” in the Winning of America series of four historical novels, which detail the settling of the frontier in the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition, he is in the midst of “Alexander of Macedon,” by Peter Green, a biography of Alexander the Great, and is rereading “A Man in Full,” by Tom Wolfe, for the second time.

In order of preference, Sheidler’s favorite genres are history, biography, political science/economics and novels. “I am a pilot so I also enjoy reading books about wartime air stories,” Sheidler said. “My father-in-law, Don Shultz, who lives in Bowling Green, flew in the Vietnam War, so this subject makes for good conversation with him.”

He said he loves to read in the cabin on his farm, which is tucked on a wooded hillside at the end of a dead-end road. “The only distractions there are the coyotes at night,” he said. But most often Sheidler reads in his home office, switching between various selections when he becomes bored. “Some history books are a bit like work, so it’s good to lighten up with a novel in between.” He plans to purchase an e-reader before his next trip out of the country, because the device will enable him to keep three or four titles going at a time more easily than filling his carry-on bag with heavy books.

Sheidler says it is tough to name just one favorite author, but if he had to, he would pick Pat Conroy. Other writers he enjoys are Thomas Sowell, Wendell Berry, Clive Cussler and Paul Johnson.

Two titles about military heroes Sheidler recommends are “American Patriot: The Life and Wars of Colonel Bud Day,” by Robert Coram, a biography of the most decorated living American veteran; and “Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds,” the story of a pilot who served 30 years in the Army and the Air Force, at West Point, in World War II and in Vietnam, edited by daughter Christina Olds.

Also on Sheidler’s list of recent favorites are Allan Eckert’s first volume of his Winning of America series, “The Frontiersmen,” an exciting and detailed history of the men who fought to settle the Ohio River Valley, and “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption,” by Laura Hillenbrand, which is currently on several best-seller lists. He also recommends all of Thomas Sowell’s books to anybody who will listen.

— By Libby Davies, Barnes & Noble Booksellers.