Tag book blog

Two Treks, Two Writers, Two Stories

Reg Spittle Leave a comment
My Journey around Mont Blanc PAPERBACK 2019 by Dan Karmi

Michael Tyler and his wife walked more than 40 times as far as Dan Karmi, but distance is not necessarily the defining measure of their accomplishments.

In Walking Thru, Tyler recreates his journey of more than 2,000 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. I am pulled to the PCT because of its incredible challenges in the desert of Southern California, over peaks more than 13,000 feet high in the Sierra Nevada, and through two more states, Oregon and Washington. Sue and I have walked five European distance treks, but none compare to the length and difficulty of the PCT.

Karmi, from Israel, walked 60 miles of the 110-mile Tour du Mont Blanc, but I have to give him credit for attempting something unlike anything he had ever done. Sue and I had done two other treks by the time we walked around Mont Blanc, something we could not have done without experience. Karmi’s story, My Journey Around Mont Blanc, is an honest sharing of his unusual experience.

Neither book was a gripping account, but I was drawn to their stories. Their adventures were so unalike, but distance walkers will find value in their words.

Ready Player Two: Does It Measure Up?

Reg Spittle Leave a comment

Imagine an alternate reality where people can do more than see, hear, and control a “game.” Instead, the events are real and the library is massive. And in the new world, people are actually reliving (that means all the senses) a person’s experience, feeling everything that person felt. Adults can choose something they would like to do and in whose body they would like to do it. For up to 12 hours a day. Yep, even sex.

Do you see problems with this alternate world? Ethics? Addiction? Confusion? Privacy? A devaluation of “real” life? An end of the world as we know it?

Those were some of my questions as I read the first part of Ready Player Two, Ernest Cline’s sequel to the hugely successful Ready Player One. I expected Cline’s story to explore more about these dilemmas within an adventure story comparable to the action of his first book. But, most of the time, I was left considering my questions on my own.

There was plenty of action. Maybe too much, too fast. Fans of John Hughes’ movies, Prince’s music and life, even the Lord of the Rings, may love the rapid-fire references.

The book is full of riddles, avatars, time travel, teleporting, dark events, “needle drops,” and more. It kept my attention most of the way. But, unlike how I felt while I read the first book, I was not on the edge of my seat.