Good old books

[Al Agnew]

I just re-read a book today...finished it in about five hours, and have to say that I really did read it quickly but trying not to miss much.  This was probably the sixth or so time I've read it.  And I enjoyed it about as much as I ever had.  I don't know how many re-read books, but I've got shelves full of those I've read more than once and will probably read again sometime.

The book?  "Fighting Caravans", by Zane Grey.  I've read most of the Zane Grey westerns over the years, some more than once, a few as many times as I've read this one.  I read most of them while still a teenager, because my aunt had subscribed to a Zane Grey book a month club and had collected about 25 of them.  She lived with her parents, my grandparents, at the time, and I spent a lot of Saturdays at their house.  I was turned on to reading books for adults when I was in about fifth grade, and from then on I read everything that looked interesting that was on their bookshelves.  I still remember (and still have them) the first two "grown-up" books I read--"Bambi", and "Bambi's Children", by Felix Salter.  Yes, long, long before Bambi was a Disney cartoon character, there were the original books.  Bambi was a roe deer, and the books were set in Europe.  And there was no rabbit named Thumper, either.  "Bambi" was, however, an anti-hunting tale.  Fortunately the anti-hunting theme didn't influence me.

I tackled the Zane Grey books at some point, probably when I was about 13.  The first one I read was "The Drift Fence".  I haven't read it in a long time, but I remember it being set on a ranch on the Mogollon Rim in Arizona.  I was probably fortunate that it was the first instead of some of his more unrelentingly romantic novels...it had enough action to fire the imagination of a 13 year old boy.  It was followed by the sequel, "The Hash Knife Outfit".  I remember trying to read "Riders of the Purple Sage", perhaps his most famous book, but hated it because it was so stickily romantic.  But somewhere along the line I read "Fighting Caravans".  And it became one of my two most favorites.

Actually, many of Grey's novels were set in the time period in which he lived, which was in the beginning of the 1900s.  Many of them had characters driving Model T Fords, and real gunfights were pretty much non-existent in those, though fist fights were common.  "Fighting Caravans", however, was a true historical novel, set in the time period before, during, and immediately after the Civil War, and it was about the overland freighters hauling wagons across the Great Plains, and the Indian tribes they fought.  Real figures such as Kit Carson and Maxwell played bit roles in it, and the descriptions of the Indians and their lives as the intersected the freighters and immigrants were accurate.  It is at heart a romantic novel, but the romance parts are short and the fighting parts long.

My other favorite Grey novel was really different for him; "Wilderness Trek" was set in frontier Australia, though the protagonists were two American cowboys.  Grey was a great hunter, sport fisherman, and traveler, and I've often wondered whether he had actually been to Australia before he wrote the book; it seems to be fairly authentic.  It's about a cattle drive across the great Outback from one side of the continent to the other.

Probably the first series of books I ever bought for myself were the Tarzan novels.  I can still remember that at the time, the South County Mall in St. Louis had just been opened.  There were no book stores in it then, but the Sears store actually had a book section, and I fell in love with browsing the books.  My aunt would usually take us there about two or three times a year (it was REALLY a big deal to go to St. Louis to the mall, an hour and a half drive).  Actually, my aunt had gotten the first Tarzan novel for me by mail order, and when I liked it she ordered the next few.  So I have them in hard cover, but the rest of the 20 some odd books in the series I bought myself as paperbacks.  I've read all of them multiple times.  Back in the days when I was an art teacher, A couple years I read the first two Tarzan novels to my eighth grade art class as they worked.  Most of them loved it.

I've got other whole series of books, or the entire collections of certain authors, that I've read multiple times.  Every full length novel of Louis L'amour.  All of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels.  Andrew J. Offut's Cormac Mac Art novels--Cormac was originally created by Robert E. Howard, who also created Conan the Barbarian, but he only wrote one Cormac book.  Offut took over the series, and in my opinion was a far superior writer.  The Matt Helm series by Donald Hamilton.  Most of Gordon R. Dickson's sci fi novels.  Fred Saberhagen's Dracula series.

Just thinking about them makes me want to go back and read them again!

[Al Agnew]

Just a little more about these old books...re-reading them does show the changes in writing that have taken place, and none of them could ever be confused with "great literature".  The Zane Grey book was written simply, which is why it's so easy to read quickly.  But I wonder how many of the newer books I've read, especially the series, will hold up so well over time.  Tom Clancy.  Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series.  Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series.  David Gemmell.

I've been looking for new series to begin, browsing Kindle books on Amazon.  Lots and lots of series in sci fi and fantasy novels, and in military and secret agent type fiction, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding books that even sound appealing.

[Quillback]

Have you read any of the Hornblower series?  Great stuff, in my opinion.  Do a search on "Hornblower" on Amazon, there's plenty of reviews.  Author is C. S. Forester - his most famous novel is the African Queen, which is another good read.

[ness]

Never did read any Zane Grey. Probably ought to give one a try. Read a lot of L'Amour a few years back, and started reading the Sackett series. I gave up on it because it just felt like he was trying to write a series, not really too worried about writing good books. Read all the early Clancy stuff but just got tired of it somehow. Loved Robert Ludlum and Ken Follett too. My favorite series of all time though it the Sherlock Holmes stuff. 

[rps]

17 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

Just a little more about these old books...re-reading them does show the changes in writing that have taken place, and none of them could ever be confused with "great literature".  The Zane Grey book was written simply, which is why it's so easy to read quickly.  But I wonder how many of the newer books I've read, especially the series, will hold up so well over time.  Tom Clancy.  Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series.  Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series.  David Gemmell.

I've been looking for new series to begin, browsing Kindle books on Amazon.  Lots and lots of series in sci fi and fantasy novels, and in military and secret agent type fiction, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding books that even sound appealing.

David Weber's Honor Harrington series that starts with On Basilik Station. Space opera, and a female Horatio Hornblower wrapped in one series (about 12 books) Fantasy style warfare try the Brit author David Gemmell.

On the topic of simple writing ... only the best have used it. Hemingway and Fitzgerald books are reading level grade 5 and 6 because they avoided complex sentences and vocabulary used to show off. When I used to teach reading and writing I had an entire lesson based on Hemingway's six word story. Legend has it he won a bar bet with it. "For sale. Baby shoes. Never used."