I've started reading my first.....

WaylanderToo

WaylanderToo

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Western!! There we go, I've said it after 54 years on this planet I've started reading my first ever western - and I'm enjoying it. I guess it helps that it's a modern one with some humour, but I can certainly see parallels with quite a few 'space operas'
 
I read westerns a lot in my youth and early twenties.
After reading Lonesome Dove I quit reading westerns altogether, because to my mind nothing could beat that.
 
I read many many westerns. Max Brand was my favourite and Lonesome Dove was poetry. But I could never, ever, get into Louis L'amour. Dull is the mildest thing I can say about his writing.
 
Elckerlyc said:
I read westerns a lot in my youth and early twenties.
After reading Lonesome Dove I quit reading westerns altogether, because to my mind nothing could beat that.
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Would recommend to you The Oxbow Incident by Walter Van Tilberg Clark and Shane by Jack Schaffer :cool:(y)
 
I read quite a few westerns when my mother was living with us. She loved Zane Grey. So we'd pick up several books at the library, and both read them. When we were through with those, we'd go back for more. Very old-fashioned, with a lot of stuff I wouldn't have put up with in a more recent book. But they were full of drama, romance, and adventure, I will give them that.
 
I enjoy reading true history's about the Old West (Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee) among other things (military, mainly WW2 but some WW1 plus American civil war and Napoleonic, gangsters and mafia).
I don't really think I could get into westerns as books, some western films I like but your average afternoon tv B movie type bores me.
However as mentioned Lonesome Dove looks good as both a book and TV series, also Hell On Wheels might be good but I haven't watched it yet, plus Deadwood if you can get past all the effing and blinding, John Wayne country it is not!!!
 
"True Grit" by Charles Portis is an absolutely wonderful book. So is "Shane," but "True Grit" would be my top recommendation.

When I was a kid I read and loved the entire Winnetou/Old Shatterhand series by Karl May. A couple of years ago I reread the first one ("Winnetou") and, well, decided I'd rather live with just my childhood memories of the rest...
 
I have read a lot of westerns, particularly the more well known ones and have found one often has to forgive them in certain unique ways.

Zane Grey’s geography was always off. Decent stories, usually.

Louis Lamour was not particularly imaginative in plots but knew his geography. If he said there was a hill someplace, you could bet it is there.

Owen Wister’s The Virginian is really more of a contemporary novel than a “western” albeit slanted to a sensationalist view of Wyoming.

McMurtry is a good author. But Lonesome Dove is not one of my favorites. It’s basically a recasting of the relationship between Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight without any attribution.
 
tegeus-Cromis said:
"True Grit" by Charles Portis is an absolutely wonderful book. So is "Shane," but "True Grit" would be my top recommendation.
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I second True Grit. I admired Blood Meridian more than liked it; you might want to check if you have a strong enough stomach for it. No Country for Old Men is a contemporary Western and not quite as blood-drenched, and also quite good.

Randy M.
 
Check out Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer... Personally, I found the film much more enjoyable than the novel (with Tom Selleck, best 'cowboy,' not western, EVER!), but, I have a minor issue with 'said's.'

K2
 
I read a Louis L'Amour collection of short-stories a couple of years ago, namely because David Gemmell named him as a big writing influence. I was pleasantly surprised, as I was expecting a lot of cliches and hackneyed writing. The other day I bought Lonesome Dove on the cheap, and my expectations of Westerns are now a lot higher. :)
 
Inspired by this thread I have now acquired The Big Sky (used books, about $2) and The Virginian. Added to my TBR.
That stack of books would by now threaten to keel over, had it not nearly all been e-books.
 
I was talking to a cousin a long time ago at a family wedding.
Like me he loved Science Fiction, we had a long discussion on favorite books and authors ect.
However he also greatly enjoyed westerns while I was heavily into crime fiction.
Well there's nowt so queer as folk!!!
 
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