Month: January 2018

Book # 1 – “The Midnight Line” by Lee Child

It should go without saying, but – “spoilers ahead” .
Lee Child is one of my guilty pleasures.
No doubt about it, he is a novelist, not a literary giant. He walks in the footsteps of authors such as Alistair Maclean, Ian Fleming, Louis L’Amour, and maybe even a little Clive Cussler. If you’ve read and enjoyed those authors, you would probably enjoy Lee Child.
The hero of his books is Jack Reacher. Do not confuse him with the character from the movies. They are only distantly related. Jack Reacher (normally just called ‘Reacher’) is the ultimate minimalist. His only possessions are the clothes on his back and a folding toothbrush. He is a samurai, wandering the world and ‘accidently’ getting involved in one adventure after another. He never fails to choose the correct side of a battle, and he never loses.
Because of the fact that he never loses, the books are very formulaic. He meets someone, something mysterious is going on, he gets involved against his will, he gets beat up, and then he wins. There’s really no suspense. You don’t worry about whether he’s going to come out okay because he ALWAYS comes out okay. That makes this a perfect summer afternoon book. No pressure – no complicated plot lines to try to keep straight.
That being said, ‘The Midnight Line’ was not one of my favorite Jack Reacher novels. The main plot deals with a US Army veteran suffering from battlefield wounds and dealing with an opioid addiction. Child paints a VERY sympathetic point of view of opioid addiction. And even for a Jack Reacher novel, the characters are very one dimensional, especially the bad guys.
Bottom line, if you’ve read all his other books, you’re going to read this one as well. After all, you have to know what happens to Reacher next, right? But if you’ve never read any of his books, don’t start with this one. I’d recommend “Killing Floor” or “61 Hours” instead.
I’ll try to read something more worthwhile next, I promise.

Reading and writing (2018) – La lectura y escritura (2018)

Anyone who truly knows me, knows that I love to read. Since I was a little kid, I’ve always loved to spend time in a book, sometimes at the expense of other things I need to be doing. But in recent years I’ve found it harder and harder to set aside enough time to make a dent in the list of books I’d like to read. 

Los que me conozcan, saben que a mi me encanta leer. Desde mi juventud, siempre he pasado mucho tiempo con un libro, a veces hasta el punto de descuidar otras cosas importantes. Pero en los años recientes, ha sido más y más difícil para apartar el tiempo necesario para leer sólo unos pocos de los libros que quiero leer. 

When we decided to move to Peru we had to get rid of almost everything we owned. For me, that meant parting with well over 400 books. After that painful experience, I swore that I’d never again accumulate so many books, filling my shelves and gathering dust. However, a couple years ago I bought myself a Kindle, and since then the collection has restarted. The advantage of the eReader is that it doesn’t take up the space that a physical library requires. The disadvantage is that you don’t have the constant reminder of the books sitting there in front of you, begging to be read. 

Cuando decidimos mudarnos a Perú, tuvimos que desecharse de casi todos nuestros pertenencias. Por mi parte, tuve que despedirme de más de 400 libros. Después de este experiencia doloroso, juré que nunca más voy a acumular una colección tan grande. Pero, un par de años atrás, compré un Kindle, y ahora he empezado la colección de nuevo. La ventaja del dipositivo electrónico es que no necesita mucho espacio, llenando mis anaqueles.  La desventaja es que no hay los libros físicos, un recordatorio constante que tengo algo para leer. 

I also love to write, though I don’t do that as often as I would wish. When I’m in the middle of a good book, I often find myself feeling twinges of jealousy at the author’s ability to express himself – his ability to reach out and  communicate with people he has never met and never will meet. I’d like to be able to do that someday.

Me gusta escribir, también, aunque no he dedicado el tiempo que quiero a eso. Cuando estoy leyendo un buen libro, tengo celos por el destreza que tiene el autor, que él puede expresarse con fluidez, que él puede afectar a personas que no conozce y nunca conocerá. Quiero hacer eso un día.

So I’ve decided that this year I’m going to spend more time reading AND writing. I figure the easiest way to accomplish both of my goals will be to write about what I’ve read. I’m making it my goal to write at least a little bit about any book that I felt was worth my time to read. My reading and writing will both be entirely digital. 

Por eso, he decidido que este año voy a dedicar más tiempo a leer Y escribir. Creo que una manera para cumplir ambos metas será leer libros y después escribir sobre lo que he leído. Mi objetivo es este – si un libro merece el tiempo para leerlo, escribiré por lo menos un poquito sobre al respecto.  Mi lectura y escritura serán completamente digitales. 

My reading program is going to be fairly ambitious. I enjoy daily Bible reading, but it’s been many years since I attempted to read the entire Bible in twelve month’s time. That’s going to be my main goal. Keeping up with my other spiritual reading is a lot easier, especially since we have so many fewer magazines to read now. So in my blog I’m not going to detail every article, every magazine I read.  I’m only going to talk about two things – major milestones that I’ve completed in my Bible reading program, and secular books that I’ve read.

Mis metas le lectura va ser bastante ambicioso. Siempre disfruto de la lectura diariamente de la Biblia, pero han pasado años en que no he leído toda la Biblia dentro de doce meses. Ese va ser mi meta principal. No es difícil mantenerme al día con mi otra lectura espiritual, especialmente porque ahora tenemos muchos menos revistas para leer. Por eso, en mi blog, no voy a mencionar cada revista, cada articulo que leo. Solo voy hablar de dos cosas – los hitos importantes en mi lectura bíblica, y la libros seglares que yo he leído. 

I’m setting the goal of reading 24 books this year. I’ve got quite a few books on my Kindle just waiting for me, and they’re a pretty diverse lot.  I love books that explain psychology – why people do the things they do.  As I get older, I find myself very interested in books about health and diet.  And of course, I’ve got a stack (a digital stack) of fiction that I haven’t read yet.

He fijado la meta de leer 24 libros este año. Tengo un montón de libros cargado a mi Kindle que me esperan, y son de temas muy diversos. A mi me gustan mucho los libros que hablan de la psicología – por que hacemos las cosas que hacemos. Y con más edad, estoy más y más interesado en los libros que tiene que ver con la salud y la dieta. Y por supuesto, tengo un sinfin de libros de ficción que aún no he leído.

So let’s get started.  I’ll let you know how it goes. 

Así voy a empezar. Los mantendré informados de mi progreso.