Today is just a quick note on what I’ve been reading and a couple of quick observations.

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed is  a memoir by a young woman who had been through some rough times and decided to find her way back by hiking huge sections of the PCT from Southern California through Oregon, skipping some sections because of deep snows. Her story of determination and persistence is compelling. I have the DVD lined up to watch this week.

I think the reason this book appealed to me so much is that I’d dreamed of hiking the Appalachian Trail, or across Andorra, or the Camino de Santiago….and never followed through. At least I did do a couple of shorter hikes in France and Italy, so I got a taste of how tough it can be and how much preparation goes into a successful trek.

If you’re into memoir and nature and human nature and memoir as motivation, you’ll like Wild.

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The other book I read this week was Slash and Burn, a Joe Hunter novel by Matt Hilton. Joe Hunter is a Brit ex-special forces who’s on the loose in the U.S. Some would call him a vigilante. He’s tough, a little crazy, and always 100% focused on whatever his mission of the moment might be. And he leaves a trail of bodies behind, if necessary.

I would be more inclined to call Matt’s books action/adventure than thriller because of the non-stop pacing and the violence. There’s more plot and less character development. In the old days, when it would have been acceptable to say so, I would have called it a man’s book. If you like fast-paced action novels, then this series is one you should try.

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I’m going to jump away from fiction for a bit to read Make it stick: the science of successful learning. I thought it might give me a few insights on how to make it a little easier to study up on things, like a camera with complicated options or a WordPress website, and learn faster and remember more. I’ll let you know how it goes.