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Miniatures Adventure => Old West => Topic started by: pauld on 23 September 2011, 01:17:17 PM

Title: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: pauld on 23 September 2011, 01:17:17 PM
I like a good movie but I ove a great book

I can watch a movie after a book but will never enjoy a book as much after seeing the movie/TV series first (unless after a looooong gap)

My contenders

Little Big Man - he meets 'em all, great and small
Son of the Morning Star - Custer and the Greasey Grass
Lonesome Dove - of course (sequels and prequels are merely OK)
Appaloosa - and all the Cole and Hitch books (Robert Parker has a wonderful spare style and ear for dialogue)
The West by Jon E Lewis - not a novel but a great potted history of the American West
Flashman and the Redskins was fun
Centennial and Texas by Michener (also a bit of Chesapeake I suppose)
Gone to Texas - Josey Wales

Give me some of your recommendations - please

I feel the need for read :)
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: Lowtardog on 23 September 2011, 01:35:07 PM
Not really a western fiction reader but I do like weird western fiction

Skin Medicine has to be the one for me
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: thebinmann on 23 September 2011, 01:57:50 PM
Again not westen but Battle Cry of Freedom is a great read about the Civil War
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: goon3423 on 23 September 2011, 03:26:59 PM
Blood Meridian...that is all  ;).
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: joroas on 23 September 2011, 03:28:28 PM
Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front?   :D
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: Bugsda on 23 September 2011, 04:15:03 PM
Geronimo: His Own Story
Once They Moved Like The Wind,  David Roberts
End of Custer, Dale T Schoenberger
Scalp Dance, Thomas Goodrich
Death in the Desert, Paul I Welman
Hombre, Elmore Leonard
Triggernometry, Eugene Cunningham
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, Dee Brown

Woops! One too many but I can't decide which to cull  :?

Oh! Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides, but that's an audio book so I don't know if it counts  :)
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: pauld on 23 September 2011, 04:43:08 PM
Scalp Dance - forgpt that one

a good if sometimes gruesome read

a lot there I have not read Bugsda - I will check them out
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: Zaheer on 23 September 2011, 07:22:21 PM
I loved Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee. A fairly laborious read in places but very affecting.
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: thebinmann on 23 September 2011, 08:28:51 PM
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, Dee Brown

Woops! One too many but I can't decide which to cull  :?


Certainly not this one!
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: Johnno on 23 September 2011, 08:57:20 PM
Appaloosa, Resolution, Brimstone all by the late Robert B. Parker
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: Malamute on 23 September 2011, 10:25:34 PM
Reading Two for Texas by James Lee Burket at the moment and really enjoying it.

"A road we do not know" is a great novelisation of the battle of Little Big Horn. Can't remember the author at the moment. But worth a read.
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: starkadder on 23 September 2011, 10:45:19 PM

Deadwood by Pete Dexter. It's absolutely magic.
Definitely Little Big Man, a great film as well
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: pauld on 24 September 2011, 10:04:22 AM
Quote
A road we do not know" is a great novelisation of the battle of Little Big Horn. Can't remember the author at the moment. But worth a read

Frederick Chiaventone (sp?)  I have that somewhere - a good book

I also need to get the Custer book by Nathaniel Philbrick.  Has anyone read it?
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: Gibby on 24 September 2011, 10:20:55 AM
Blood Meridian...that is all  ;).

The author's staunch refusal to use punctuation put me off that book. It clearly doesn't bother others because his books sell millions, but I find the idea that he won't use quote marks because it "makes the page look messy" really f***ing irritating!  :-[
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: matakishi on 24 September 2011, 12:15:55 PM
The Virginian.
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: pauld on 24 September 2011, 02:20:40 PM
I struggled to read Blood Meridian (and other Cormac McCarthy books) so much I put it down, the writing style irritated me too much

I am sure there is a great story in there but his works are not for me

must cheack out Deadwood - thanks starkadder
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: Cholly on 24 September 2011, 04:27:33 PM
Two for Texas by James Lee Burke (malamute this is a great little book)
Blood Meridian by Cormac Macarthy
The Collected Western Stories by Elmore Leonard, an absolute classic and a greatr chance to play spot the movie)


Cholly
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: fitterpete on 25 September 2011, 12:35:22 AM
Only western book I ever read was A Gent From Bear Creek by Robert E. Howard,yep the Conan author.
When I was younger anything from Howard was on my reading list.He's famous for his fantasy type writing but he is also a very good historical horror/pulp type writer.
Pigeons from Hell scared the crap outa me!
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: goon3423 on 25 September 2011, 11:05:34 PM
The author's staunch refusal to use punctuation put me off that book. It clearly doesn't bother others because his books sell millions, but I find the idea that he won't use quote marks because it "makes the page look messy" really f***ing irritating!  :-[
I struggled to read Blood Meridian (and other Cormac McCarthy books) so much I put it down, the writing style irritated me too much

I am sure there is a great story in there but his works are not for me

must cheack out Deadwood - thanks starkadder

Reading Mcartrhy is no doubt a pain in the a$$, I'm a big fan & I also get annoyed as hell with his writing style more often than not. But rest assured that some great gems of stories reside between those annoying lines  :).
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: Galloping Major on 26 September 2011, 05:24:42 PM
Reading Mcartrhy is no doubt a pain in the a$$, I'm a big fan & I also get annoyed as hell with his writing style more often than not. But rest assured that some great gems of stories reside between those annoying lines  :).

I was a bit irritated with the lack of punctuation and other quirks in the writing style when reading Blood Meridian, but carried on reading as it is a great, though very bloody, portrayal of filibusters and scalphunters in Mexico in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War. It was worth the struggle I must say, but a bit less of a struggle wouldn't have spoiled the experience.  ;) I'd recommend soldiering on with it.

Can't be putting together a list of favourites right now, but don't miss:

Flashman and the Indians.  :)


www.gallopingmajorwargames.com
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: goon3423 on 26 September 2011, 08:49:36 PM
Just getting into "The Sisters Brothers" by Patrick DeWitt, so far very, very good. It's like Mcarthy if he had any sense of humor..like if he had one at all....he does not. Plus no annoying lack of punctuation  lol. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: Bugsda on 26 September 2011, 10:19:21 PM
Just getting into "The Sisters Brothers" by Patrick DeWitt, so far very, very good.

I just got this as an audio book, haven't listen to it yet.

Talking books are a good if you're put off by lack of punctuation, it's a drag when you get a reader with a voice that annoys though.
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: Jim French on 26 September 2011, 11:49:37 PM
For research, I liked Mystic Warriors of the Plains and Dog Soldiers, Bear Men, and Buffalo Women
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: Galloping Major on 27 September 2011, 07:26:25 AM
For research, I liked Mystic Warriors of the Plains and Dog Soldiers, Bear Men, and Buffalo Women

Now we're getting into some interesting stuff  :)

For me when it comes to researching Indians, if you're interested in Comanches, it's got to be Fehrenbach's "Comanches".


www.gallopingmajorwargames.com
Title: Re: We've had the Movies now how about the top Western Books
Post by: admiraldick on 10 October 2011, 09:44:14 PM
this is a totally random suggestion, but last year a friend of mine bought me 'A Treasury of Western Folklore' edited by B A Botkin. its a truely bizarre book, that is a compilation of newspaper cuttings, biographical quotes, songs and other forms of folklore, that give you a really realistic and inspiring look into the world of the Old West. i highly recomend tracking down a copy.

(on a totally tangential note, if you are looking for books on pirates, i recommend 'A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates' by Charles Johnson for very similar reasons.)