Put Me In The Book and I Will Keep Reading

“Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen.” Louis L’Amour

Speaking of things I have seen - watched this doe and twins today as we headed out Eagle watching

I have always liked that quote. I guess because it can be taken so many different ways. Until a few years ago I had only read one L’Amour book then I read his, Education of a Wandering Man, and I was hooked. The next year I read twenty or so of his books. Some I liked, some not so much. But he was pretty good at putting the reader inside the book through his description of place.

Seems as I get older I want to slow down and take a look around. I like it when stories do that. I don’t need a description of everyone's clothes, looks, or everything they ate, but I need to feel like I am inside the pages of the book. It seems like each month I will start 10 or so books and finish half that at best. The one thing I find in common with the ones I finish is that I can feel part of it.

 I have been a long time fan of western writers, Tony Hillerman, Elmer Kelton, and Richard S. Wheeler. In the past few years, I have added Lee Child, C. J. Box and Craig Johnson to my list of writers I cannot wait for their next book. I read many other writers as I continue my quest to find more writers that make me feel like I am a character in their story.

Today's photos I snapped late this morning. The last days of November and early December is a great time of the year for eagle watching. They are very wary creatures and require a lot of patience to take a few decent photos. But, because I do not travel too many miles, instead I take my time and stop to look around, I often get lucky. Thankfully I have a patient wife who is willing to go as slow as I am.

Mom showing the little ones how to hunt or maybe fish

Meanwhile keep on reading and keep on writing. 

Who Do I Like To Read?

Favorite Author

Someone asked me this week who my favorite authors were. Not a tough question, but I stumbled around a bit before coming up with a short list. I often smile when I see famous people list their favorite books or authors. Most are nothing more than a politically correct list of who the polls must say are the books and authors they should read. In modern days, it is tough for me to believe that books like, Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm, 1984,  Ulysses, or Moby Dick, are anyone's favorites. (I am not saying these are bad books, only one’s that many people list as favorites because it seems like they should have read them – I have read all but Ulysses)

Wyoming Traffic Jam - Just for fun

Some Books are Hard to Read

I checked out Stephen Hawkins book, A Brief History of Time, at a librarian's suggestion, when it first was published and on many readers to read list, in the late 1980s. Well, I read it, or most of it, some parts, I actually understood. Yet a reported ten million copies have been sold. Who could read it? I am not a believer in statistics, but as Mark Twain once said, although he always attributed it to others,  "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.  Well, at this point in the post I will make up a statistic, less than ten percent of the ten million who bought it read more than a chapter or two. Of course, this statistic does not take into account all of us who checked it out at the local library and pretended to read it.

I just keep rotating books from here to the garage

Genre Fiction

Seems that reading genre fiction is not politically correct, even though millions and millions of fiction titles are sold each year.

My Reading

Recently I have finished reading a couple of mysteries. The first was C.J Box’s, Endangered, and I must say, this is a fantastic read. I also finished re-reading two of Lawrence Block’s, Bernie Rohdenbaug, mysteries, both fast paced, fun and, excellent as always, from Mr. Block. I am now reading, Fort Laramie by Douglas C. McChristian, nonfiction, for research purposes, but am finding it to be a good read. I am also reading Terry C. Johnston’s Sioux Dawn.

Sometimes I am reading, sometimes writing, and here selling books - Fun

My favorites?

Here is a short list of authors I have been reading the past few years, almost all mysteries or westerns. By the way, I took this list from my Kindel, simply scrolled down and listed who I was reading.

·        C.J. Box – Modern day westerns

·        Craig Johnson - Longmire

·        Lawrence Block – Many types of mysteries

·        Richard S. Wheeler – Love his mountain man books

·        Terry Johnston – Great research into his writing

·      William W. Johnston ( early books) Mountain man characters are unforgettable

·        Lee Child – Jack Reacher

·        Elmer Kelton – Cowboys, real life stories

·        Tony Hillerman – Navaho mysteries, terrific

·        Louis L’Amour – how can 100 million buyers be wrong?

My list of old time authors I like to read, and still do

·        James Fennimore Cooper – Leatherstocking Tales

·        Author Conan Doyle – Sherlock Holmes

·        Charles Dickens –  My all time favorite

·        Ernest Hemingway – My wife wonders how I can read his stuff

·        Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – From many years of teaching European history

There you have it! Who do you like?

 

Looking for a good book

Genres, Writing, Reading and Wandering

A few thoughts on books, authors and all things writing and reading.

Writers come in all sizes, shapes, ages and genres. The list on the bottom of this post is not complete but, I think, a decent list of various modern genres. No matter what area of writing an author is working in there will be competition for readers. Today with self-publishing each category has developed sub categories, some genres many of them. And the competition to sell books is fierce.

In my day, as a school kid, I read action, adventure and westerns, along with anything I could find about baseball players. Today school kids seem to read fantasy and horror, with many girls having a tenancy to pick up romance. In my part of the world, the boys still like hunting stories.

Both as a youngster and as an adult I have enjoyed a good mystery, Mystery mixed with any of the above seem to be good catchers for today’s readers.

In my growing up years we read comic books, today kids read graphic novels, which look pretty much the same to me. The only difference, ours were usually humorous and in color, while graphic novels seem more along the lines of super hero or romance, serious books printed in black and white.

I think most westerns with large readership today would be classified as modern western mysteries. Two Wyoming writers, C.J. Box and Craig Johnson have been very successful in this area of writing. As far as the traditional, old west, western, it’s not dead, but I’m not sure any new author or agent could convince a major, traditional publish house, to buy one. Doubtful an author starting out could even find a reader among agents and publishers for this genre – too bad. I would still try one.

A literary genre is a category of writing. Genres may be determined by many factors.  Differences between genres and subcategories of genres are loosely defined.

Snowy Today in Wyoming

~My Incomplete Genre List~

Action

Adventure

Anthologies

Art

Autobiographies                 

Biographies

Children's

Comics

Cookbooks

Diaries

Dictionaries

Drama

Encyclopedias

Fantasy

Guide

History

Horror

Journals

Math

Mystery

Poetry

Prayer books

Religious

Romance

 Satire

Science

Science fiction

Self help

Series

Travel

Trilogies

Westerns

Finding New Readers for Western's

I recently heard a comment that no one reads westerns anymore. Haven’t we all heard that, and often? And at first glance, that sure looks to be true. Reminded me of a baseball story, or maybe it was because I watched the Rockies and Brewers Friday evening.

As a kid growing up in Nebraska, I was a big New York Yankee fan. Not sure why I was, but I knew all the players, their positions and their numbers. One of my favorites was, Yogi Berra, the great Yankee catcher who once said, the reason he quit going to Ruggeri’s, a St. Louis restaurant, to eat anymore, was, “Nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded.”

Maybe it’s that kind of reasoning that makes western novels something, “no one reads anymore.”

Yogi didn’t get it, and maybe those of us who encourage young people to read are thinking as off keel as he was. Often when today's readers decide to read a western they are steered to classics like, The Virginian, or Riders of the Purple Sage. Both great reads, but books I would say are much too dated and are difficult reading for a first time western reader. When one becomes a serious fan of westerns these will become, must, reads.

Some young readers are told to read Louis L’Amour, because his books are still sold everywhere and so many people have read them. I enjoyed many of L’Amour’s books and have read and enjoyed both The Virginian and Riders of the Purple Sage, but none of them are a first time western reader type of book.

So what would I suggest? Something by Elmer Kelton, Tony Hillerman or Loren Estleman to start. Why? I find them more captivating than some of the older westerns, might grab a young reader more quickly.

I also really like the modern day westerns of two Wyoming writers, C.J. Box and Craig Johnson. (Johnson’s books are the basis for the hit A&E series, Longmire and, the multi-award winning, Box has had a number of New York Times best sellers, centered on his Wyoming game warden, Joe Pickett. In my part of the world a lot of high school kids like these two writers.

How about a western movie to get them started. I like, Smoke Signals, The Last of the Dogmen, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Not the choices of anyone else I have seen, but I am talking about whetting the aptitude of readers for the western genre. Smoke Signals is hard hitting, Dogmen is a bit of a fantasy and Butch and Sundance has some great comedy and music. Something for everyone.

NOTE- This post is not about teaching about the west, it is about getting the younger generation interested in reading, once again, the western genre.

If you completely disagree with this post, I could always quote Yogi again. Responding to a question about remarks attributed to him that he did not think were his: “I really didn’t say everything I said.”

Reading Westerns and Mysteries and Western Mysteries

Most readers that like westerns seem also to be avid readers of mystery novels. My favorite reads are books that have great elements of mystery but are set as westerns in the old or new/modern west. It is not always easy to find this type of western as most seem more to lean toward crime fiction, historical fiction or western romance. Seems like there are a lot of modern westerns, Tony Hillerman’s stuff comes to mind, that have sold a ton of books twisting great mysteries in a western setting but not as many set in the old west.

Mysteries with a red herring or two thrown in can’t be beat in my estimation.  I am constantly searching for new authors to read and try to find writers who write both mystery and westerns. This is the way I found Elmore Leonard, long ago, before the internet.

Some writes seem to write great characters that fit well into the new west but really are not meant to be westerns, Lee Child’s, Jack Reacher comes to mind. (I have really enjoyed this series of books). Two other authors of modern westerns, C.J. Box and Craig Johnson (I may be prejudiced here as they are both Wyoming writers) write great modern western mysteries and are well worth the read. Johnson’s ongoing character, Walt Longmire, has been made into a very good A&E television program-LONGMIRE (airing every Sunday evening)

Happy Reading, enjoy the twists and turns of a great western mystery.