The last fiction I read was about 70 years ago, when I was 12. Stories like Jack London's "Call of the Wild" and Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn". Ever since then it has been historical and scientific non-fiction, so my wife got me a collection of Short Stories by Louis L'amour for my Birthday yesterday! I had lately said that I might like a Zane Grey novel or short story, but I've also heard that L'amour is an equally good writer of Western stories. What do you all think? Hal
Take a look at The Nick Adams stories by Ernest Hemingway, every camp should have a copy. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/04/specials/hemingway-nick.html?_r=1
I think you will like L'Amour more than Zane Grey. He was a gifted storyteller. Here is the opening paragraph from, "Showdown at Yellow Butte": Everything was quiet in Mustang, Three whole days without a killing. The townspeople, knowing their community, were not fooled. They had long since resigned themselves to the inevitable. In fact, they would be relieved when the situation was back to normal -- a killing every day; more on hot days. Several days without deadly gunplay built up a tension that was unbearable. Who would be next ?
Well, Shirley...that one seems a bit severe, but I'm also seeing a lot of recommendations that I read Zane Grey's "Riders of the Purple Sage" as being the most definitve of all Western Novels. Hal
Both are very, very good at writing Westerns. If I had to tip my hat in any direction, it would be to L'Amour. I just liked the way he set characters and places. Why not give 'Riders of the Purple Sage' a read, then try 'Hondo' by L'Amour. You'll have read two of the best Westerns ever written. (IMHO)
I've read most of Zane Grey's novels and all of L'amore's books. Both are good but they wrote in different times. I prefer Louise L'amore's stories. The western novel, Shane, is said to be a classic western story, if you like the western story.
I've read a couple of L'Amour's short stories from my birthday gift book. He unleashes torrents of words like a dam breaking.,..he can take a whole page to describe a Tumbleweed! Is Zane Grey any simpler? Hal
The old westerns by both writers are great but you should not limit yourself to westerns. One of my favorite adventure stories is The Mapmaker by Frank G. Slaughter. A more recent novel of murder, mayhem, corruption and humor is Bone Dry by Ben Rehder.
My wife is a Murder Mystery fanatic! She has all the Sherlock Holmes movies ever released, with both Basil Rathbone and the newer actor. Hal
WAIT A MINUTE.....I take back what I said about Louis L'Amour's excessively wordy writing style. I just completed the 3rd of his short stories, and although he describes the dramatic scenes quite vividly, I found the detailed descriptions were necessary to convey the drama and excitement of the story! Three stories read, 32 to go! I'll be stopping soon at our Library to see if I can get Zane Grey's "Riders of the Purple Sage"! Hal
I quit reading fiction for about three years back in the nineties. Only read nonfiction. I've been reading the Defector by Daniel Silvia. I'm about half way through the book and it seem It has taken forever. I have laid it aside for the present and have started another book, "Love In The Second Act," by somebody with the name of Allison Leslie Gold. It's nonfiction. I seem to be reading slower, taking me longer to finish a chapter, a paragraph. My concentration is or appears to be somewhat lacking.
There was a time I felt like I was wasting my time reading fiction but, for someone who likes to write, I don't think it's a waste of time to see how other people write and to admire or critique their work. I like pretty much anything that is well written, as long as the subject is something I can relate to.
L'Amoure was the last fiction writer I had enjoyed. I read all of his books and somewhere down the line I ended up going to the four corners just to check things out. Zane Grey is the one I really didn't enjoy because He is the one who went out of his way to describe everything down to it's molecular level it seemed. He would write three pages or so just to describe a leaf and it got me into the habit of some heavy skim reading. Since then my slight fetish with L.L. some 35 years ago, it's all been non-fiction all the way for reading but fiction when it comes to my movie viewing.