If any of yall are into western literature check out Louis L’Amour if you haven’t already. I have quite a few of his books since they are at a lot of yard sales for some reason. I finally read one of his anthologies and loved it. Painted a great picture in my head. Granted I grew with with a dad and big grandfathers who were into westerns.
Comments (20)
sorted by:
Everything Robert E Howard wrote was an incredible blend of energetic and raw fun. From Conan and Kull to Solomon Kane, it's all good and very much worth your time. I could list a bunch of pretentious literary choices as well but I won't, because I want you nerds to read the best fantasy ever written first.
Edit: I misread the title in my autistic haste to recommend Howard, but I'll leave it as is just because.
Last fall I read the complete Howard Conan stories. Loved them. Also got a lot of the 70s through 90s marvel Conan comics and found some Conan books from 70s I haven’t read yet.
My dad basically only read westerns and war books. He read Louis L'Amour but I only remember seeing on his shelf a lot of books about Jubal Sackett. But he also had books by Jack Schaefer and Edward Abbey. And from my personal experience the only western I've read was Charles Portis ' True Grit because I loved both versions of the film.
I think I found True Grit at a yard sale along with Lonesome Dove. Thanks! I’ll check them out
If you've never seen the Lonesome Dove miniseries you should definitely set aside 6 hours to watch it, it's one of the best Western shows of all time. It's even free right now on Tubi.
Cool!! Will definitely watch
Raised on it, particularly the Sackett series. Good stuff all around.
In my mountain of “books to be read” I have some of those. Has any of his stuff ever been adapted? I loved his writing from the first few pages. Also, have you read the Shogun book? You like it
I have not read it, I'm presently going through the audio books of the Dresden Files. Very good reads, particularly once the speaker gets a few books in. My job is... unusual, and having hands free is pretty important.
As for films, pretty sure half of Sam Eliott's career is L'amour films, there's definitely some out there.
Can confirm Shogun is an excellent book. The 80s miniseries is also excellent as well. Both are immeasurably better than the recent girlboss version.
If I find the time between children, wife, and job I'll have to see if I can get a copy.
Thanks. I think I have the Dresden files in my pile to read as well. I’ll be reading til the day I die
Not a terrible situation to be in. I'm fortunate to have had a head start, my mother homeschooled our family pretty much with library cards and math textbooks.
Cool. My mom made us go to the library each week and insisted we read as well as listen to tapes that taught vocabulary words.
It's certainly not a bad way to learn.
On the topic of Westerns, I recently discovered Marty Robbins and he has dragged me down a rabbit hole of falling in love with the entire concept for the first time in my life.
I know he was a huge name to have missed for this long, but its truly amazing to hear someone whose not just genuinely talented at music but can also just conjure a deep little short story over the course of the song and be unapologetically far-right politically without it feeling forced.
Shit he has a song outright called "I've Got No Use for the Women" and its more relevant now than it has ever been.
He was great and his gunfighter ballad album is my favorite
Marty was a magically good singer, glad he's still getting new fans.
Lots of dads and grandpas read every one of his books 20+ years ago, that's why you can find so many of them at yard sales now. They're great stuff.
I got a ton of Louis L’Amour and other western books at an estate sale where the kids were selling their dad’s stuff so you are completely correct