Okay, first off, I don't read westerns. And when I have in the past, for other reader's advisory assignments, I haven't had much luck picking titles. The first one I read was just plain odd - feral children who had fallen off a buckboard and were raised by wolves or something like that. The second time I thought I'd try a series western (Longarm, I think), that was nothing more that a Romance set in time and place. It was so bad I couldn't even finish it.
So this time I was determined to do it right. I went right to the master. I picked up a Louis L'Amour. I listened to L'Amour's The Trail to Peach Meadow Canyon. It was the story of Mike Bastian, raised by his adoptive father to be the ultimate outlaw, and to eventually take over his empire. But Mike isn't sure he wants to be an outlaw, especially after he meets the beautiful Drusilla.
The story started with an interesting introduction by L'Amour himself on the make up of outlaw groups in the old west. Then the story began, narrated by Robert Stack. I was a little distracted at first by his voice, flashbacks to all those Unsolved Mysteries shows I've seen (okay that dates me a little).
This was the western I've been looking for. Lots of atmosphere and cowboying. There is a reason all my customers ask for L'Amour books. He does write a good story. Now, while I did enjoy the book, I'm not saying that I'll start routinely reading westerns. I would, however, definitely not hesitate to hand him out to anyone looking for a western read.
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A reader's advisory project: What are you reading? A small description . . . Would you recommend this and to whom?
2 comments:
Does James McMurty count as Western Lit?
Do you mean Larry McMurtry? Lonesone Dove and all? Yes, I think some of McMurtry's books would fall into the Western category, even though the library system's I've worked for have cateloged them as adult fiction.
I did actually think of reading it for this project, but to be honest, as I said in my post, I don't like westerns and I was looking for something short. Lonesome Dove was way too long, that and we didn't have it on CD for me to listen to. If I can get it on CD, maybe I'll try it another time.
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