Waited all of 10 days or so to buy the 19th Jack Reacher book, entitled Personal, which came out on September 2.

When I got around to reading it … I was done on the second day.

How does this version compare to the others?

Pretty much more of the same … but perhaps slightly better than average.

Reacher never washes clothes. He carries nothing with his except a tooth brush. He is large. He apparently never ages. He can beat up three, four, five guys at a time. And he has a sexual encounter with one of the primary female characters in nearly every book — though in this one the author, Lee Child, gives us a Reacher who manages to remain celibate.

This one is set mostly in Paris and London, which is kind of fun. Most of the Reacher books are set in smalltown America, which is getting a bit tired.

Like book No. 7 (Persuader), this one has a extraordinarily large enemy who apparently also abuses steroids. Thus, Reacher’s usual one-punch fighting technique does not work nearly as well. “His hands were like shovels.”

I didn’t keep track of Reacher’s body count in this one, but Personal seems slightly less violent. Reacher kills at least two people, and maybe a few more (he routs four body guards at once … twice), but that is a low number for him.

One of the great things about Reacher books, if you have a few lying about, is that many of the plots are compelling but easily forgotten. Reading one is like living life as a goldfish; every time around one of his books is like reading it for the first time. At least, for the first 100 pages or so.

The book names also tell a person nearly nothing. The Hard Way, Without Fail, Persuader, Personal … which makes it hard to keep track of which is which.

So it might be better to stick with numbers. Like Persuader. That would be No. 19

Again, hard to imagine Tom Cruise might play Jack Reacher someday.

While reading the books, we don’t have to think about Tom Cruise. I never thought of him once. The main character was a big guy who didn’t look anything like TC.