Western paperback novels. Stacks of them. Sitting by an old recliner in the living room of my grandparents’ house. When I was a kid, I remember my grandfather having pretty much every Louis L’Amour book ever written. And if he didn’t have it yet, he was going to get it for Christmas that year.
As a kid, I wasn’t interested in the work of L’Amour. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy a good western story, or even reading, for that matter. But as many young people could attest, if my grandfather enjoyed them, I was quite sure that I wouldn’t. And when he passed away and the books were all boxed up, I passed on the opportunity again. They couldn’t be that good, right?
Don’t misunderstand me though, I’ve always enjoyed reading and especially good adventure fiction. I’m 46 now and I can still tell you about Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet, Where the Red Fern Grows and other books from my youth. I moved on to Jack London, H. Rider Haggard, Jules Verne and the like. King Solomon’s Mines, Around the World in 80 Days and The Sea Wolf fall among my favorite titles. Even Captain Blood by Sabatini. And still the western genre and L’Amour eluded me. They couldn’t be that good, right?
And then, merely by accident, I discovered my Spotify subscription had audiobooks. Free books that I can listen to while driving or mowing or anything else. Sign me up. And wouldn’t you know it, there was Louis L’Amour at the top of the list. ‘Why not?’ I asked myself. I started with Hondo. I was hooked. Next was Flint, then Comstock Lode and so on and so on. L’Amour does such an excellent job of painting scenes and building characters. He describes the West in a time and place that I think every young man has dreamed of experiencing at least once. Stories of honest men and villains, cowboys and robbers, lawmen and lawlessness. I was wrong. They are that good. Each time I listen to a new one, I buy the paperback so I can go back another time and read it again. Always a used copy. I want a book with some history. And yes, I wish I had opened the box and taken those old paperbacks that smelled of Vitalis aftershave. But I digress, and I need to make my point, so here it is. Open the box. Give something a try. Who knows, it might be that good.
