Louis L'Amour is one of the great western novelists. Not all people know this apparently. L'Amour wrote some 89 novels, as well as quite a few short stories. Now granted, a number of his novels are not terribly long. He specifically wrote to the paperback format, so few of his stories run more than 200 pages. His personal history is said to have informed many of the basics of the reoccurring themes. For instance, he spent a short time as an amateur boxer, and most of the stories involve the protagonist knowing something about the real science of boxing and ultimately triumphing against the array of evil characters in the story.
Now, I'm not shy in admitting that I love westerns. Lord knows I've dragged Dave and other friends to westerns over the year. L'Amour has a number of his books & stories turned into movies. I have read the various L'Amour books off and on for years. I have my own collection of them now, which was jump started when my grandfather passed on some of his books to me. I love that I can walk into pretty much any used book store and grab a whole handful of L'Amour books for less than $1 a piece. I re-discovered my enjoyment of them while in grad school. Sometimes I needed something to relax after weeks of heavy reading and writing.
I sort of find that these books are a good, random feel-good almost mindless joy for me. Some people like comic books, or as Dave apparently has found out, harlequin romances. I like westerns.
Love it. Everybody needs that pure "mindless" entertainment, even though most of the time, "mindless" is not an apt description. Also, I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed L'Amour books much more than the harlequin romances.
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