When I was a kid, I read alot- insane amounts sometimes. As a teen, my reading decreased a smidge. Mostly because I was having to read text books so much that reading for fun took a back seat. I'm not the only one of "the kids" to have this love of books, and we all know where we got it from- Mom and Dad. Mom would read during the few times that she actually sat still, breakfast and lunch- I do too. Dad would read in the evenings to unwind.
He'd read all sorts of different books, but the ones that I remember seeing most often were the westerns- Louis L'Amour. I would tease him about them even worse than my brothers and sisters tease me about listening to country. How the story was always the same. The hero was always the same type of guy. And the good guy always got the girl. It was simple, it was dull and it was silly.
In college my personal reading practically disappeared. I was frazzled to insanity, wandering the library in a daze, and the thought came to me that I needed a good book to read just for fun. I thought of all the authors that I usually read and discarded each one for requiring too much brain power that I simply did not have to spare. As I stood there in the hallway, I took a minute to look around, hoping for inspiration. Low and behold I found myself standing right next to and entire 6-shelf bookcase FULL of Louis L'Amour. They were thin, they were paperback (no added weight to my pack) and as far as I knew they were totally brainless!
I read only a few in my time down in Utah, but they were pleasingly relaxing. They weren't the brainless fluff I thought they were either. True, the good guy always got the girl, and the bad and good were fairly easily defined, but the "simple" cowboys were some deep characters! They were learned and philosophical, dedicated and strong. And the best part was that no matter how complicated the story was or how involved I'd gotten in the characters, I always felt restful at the end- which was always good.
Even Shane has figured out that I'm a bit more chill if I've been reading my books- even when I'm not able to read right then, he's on the ball to bring me "my book".
So If you don't mind, you hecklers, lay off and let me get my western fix!I've found 2 that I particularly am fond of.
The first is a very well disguised love story. Amid the fistfights and rustlers, there's letters sent by way of tumbleweeds from a lonely girl to the gunfighter/ cattle hand. Neither one of them figured out the identity of the other until the very end.
The second was a bit different than Mr. L'Amour's usual stereotype. The hero- a Sackett- was a 16 year old girl from the Tennessee hills. And yes, the girl got the guy in the end.
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