This wasn't supposed to be a book review

I like to read. It gives me an excuse to sit on my ever expanding butt and do nothing physical for great stretches of time. And it facilitates naps and other forms of sleep. Currently, I am reading the latest Lee Child novel about his character Jack Reacher. If you do not know who Jack Reacher is, I pity you... you do not have a full life.

Reacher is a cross between the Lone Ranger, Rambo, and most characters played by John Wayne. He is a guy who roams about righting wrongs. He does not seek wrongs to right, he just comes across them in his travels. You do not want to cross him or challenge him but other characters in the novels always seem to. Most of them live to regret it. Some never get the chance to regret it.

Why do I (and so many millions of others) love this character (thereby making Mr. Child quite rich)? He is our inner hero, that guy we all wish we could be (if male) or could meet (if female). He is a tough, no nonsense, sort of guy who never starts a fight but always finishes them. He doesn't waste a lot of words or worry about political correctness. He is the cavalry coming to the rescue, a one man police force which takes no prisoners (though he occasionally leaves them for others to arrest).

There are things in Mr. Child's novels which nettle me since I am one of those people who worry over small, insignificant things. He uses British colloquialisms, for instance, something I think this character would not do. But these are minor things that won't worry the average reader.

What attracts me (and I suspect many others) most is that he just drifts about the country, going wherever his mood takes him. He carries no luggage, owns nothing of any importance and has no roots. There is nothing to hold him to any one place. He's the stranger who drifts into town, rights a few wrongs, and then moves on to another town and other wrongs.

We love these types, don't we? The success of the James Bond movies (and the aforementioned John Wayne) are so successful because of it.

This novel, the 16th in the series, is called "The Affair" and it is a bit of a prequel type with Reacher still in the Army, still some kind of elite Military Police major, just before he gets mustered out as the army is downsized after the Cold War has ended.

Read it. If you have never read a Reacher novel before, you will be hooked and want to read them all.