Gary is finally over the first phase of his retirement, his TV binge-watching period. He's binged on Fringe, Alias, The Killing, Medium, and some Swedish thing about a reporter. Clearly, he likes strong female characters. He's now segued to books on the iPad. Given his specific tv tastes listed above you'd think he'd download a book with a strong female character.
He started off with Treasure Island. The kid's book. It was an odd book to start with. I imagine in his youth he didn't have time to finish Treasure Island? It was free? He's stepping right into his second childhood? I don't know.
Then, he read Ender's Game, which is science fiction. I was expecting a long run of Sci-fi. Oddly, no. After a brief detour to The Shining, he read the first "Jack Reacher" book. I don't know the name. All I know about it is that there was a Tom Cruise move with that name, and I mentioned it to Gary.
Gary filled my ears with WHY TOM CRUISE IS TOTALLY WRONG in that role, and to hear him talk you'd think Jack Reacher was a relative. Evidently, Jack R. is an older man who lost his job and now wanders the earth with no possessions except the clothes on his back.
The lack of clothing fascinates Gary. When I told him I'd put his clothes in the dryer, he said, "Jack Reacher just buys new clothes. Or he could go to the laundromat and wash his one set of clothes. Of course ... he'd have to have another set of clothes to wear while he's washing his first set of clothes, otherwise he'd be naked in the laundromat." This made him wonder if there are people wandering around laundromats nude, wih the excuse they are washing their only set of clothes. "That would not be good."
I asked if there were other Jack Reacher novels he could read. "Oh, yes. There are 62." This made me wonder if they all had the same writer, or if they followed the Nancy Drew model of ghostwriters sharing a pseudonym.
"No!" He realized the author would have to have written one Jack Reacher book a year since grade school. "No, I'm wrong. There are about 47 books."
"Are you going to read them all?"
"Yes, I have to read them all in order."
So, book-binging is the new tv-binging. I googled Jack Reacher, my new competition for Gary's attention, and thankfully there are only 18 books and six short stories.
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