Louis L'Amour

[JohnRippert]

I have enjoyed reading Louis L'Amour since I was a lad. One of the things I have always been thankful for was that Dad decided to get into the Collector Series in leatherette. I have been trying to find the few that he did not have. I got lucky on Ebay and found 5 of the missing ones lately. There are all seven of the Collected Short Stories and a couple others still left to go. I am rereading "Hondo" right now.

One nice afterthought. Dad used to mark the month and year when he would read the book. Hondo has four dates spread over 8 years. I think I will start a second line, also in pencil, under his.

 

[Calaveras Slim]

Louis L'amour

www.l'Amourcollection.com has all of his books in print. The ones with the leatherette covers also. You can buy them there

 

[WardenRoss]

I like your collection!

I raised my boys on Louis L'Amour books. Our treat was to listen to the Louis L'Amour audio cassette tapes on Saturday nights. We did not allow a TV in our house when the boys were growing up.

The kind gentleman above gave a bad link....here is the correct one.

The Louis L'Amour Collection: About the Collection

 

[JohnRippert]

I was able to get Vol 6 and 7 of the Collected Short Stories and May There Be A Road from the website. Unfortunately Vol 1-5 and From The Listening Hills are out of stock.

 

[Rustyt1953]

My dad had a man-crush on Louie. As long as I can remember, he kept a book by his easy chair and one on his nightstand.

After dad passed, mom and I took three boxes full of Louie's paperbacks to a used book store and donated them.

 

[Absalom]

Strangely enough, even though Mr. L'Amour is mostly famous for his Western novels (which, I hesitantly admit, do get a bit formulaic once you've read a dozen or so), my very favorite work of his is "Last of the Breed", a Cold War novel about a US Air Force pilot of Native American heritage who gets shot down on a secret mission over the USSR, and then escapes from captivity and makes his way across Siberia to the Bering Strait, pursued by Soviet henchmen.

In fact, now that you've reminded me, I need to find my old 1980s paperback and read it for the third or fourth time. Or maybe it's on Kindle by now.

 

[amazingflapjack]

I learned more about American History from him and Zane Grey than I ever did in school, that's for sure!

 

[JohnRippert]

Strangely enough, even though Mr. L'Amour is mostly famous for his Western novels (which, I hesitantly admit, do get a bit formulaic once you've read a dozen or so), my very favorite work of his is "Last of the Breed", a Cold War novel about a US Air Force pilot of Native American heritage who gets shot down on a secret mission over the USSR, and then escapes from captivity and makes his way across Siberia to the Bering Strait, pursued by Soviet henchmen.

In fact, now that you've reminded me, I need to find my old 1980s paperback and read it for the third or fourth time. Or maybe it's on Kindle by now.

I just finished that one about a month ago. It was also one of the missing ones in the collection editions that I was able to find. Great story there.

 

[rburg]

The OP is wealthy. Most of us settle for the paperbacks like Rusty donated. I have no idea how much gasoline and time I've spent haunting the used bookstores and such. Zane Gray wasn't all that prolific. It didn't take long to acquire and read most of his work. The ones I couldn't find we went to the library and after a bunch of begging, got them to order them on an exchange basis.

Then I moved to the Louis L'Amour books and was kept busy for a few years. In the middle of that I started reading the porn stuff named Longarm.

But these days I have trouble reading at all. The stupid LED and Compact Flourescent bulbs don't put out any light. I pay the electric bill and have found the 3 way 250 watt bulbs work pretty well. The rest of the family thinks I'm an environmental criminal.

 

[Targets Guy]

I love to reread Louis's stories. Hondo remains one of my favorites. I am a big Zane Grey fan as well.

 

[Goldstar225]

Ones of my favorites. I started reading him when I was about 15, almost 45 years ago. I have over 100 of the leatherette books. I need to get off of my butt and search out the 15 or so that I'm missing.

 

[eveled]

I have the complete set of leather bound books. They came one a month for $19.95 I believe. Money well spent, I learned a lot of life lessons from those books. As well as history.

My favorites were the Sackett stories.

 

[mtgianni]

Strangely enough, even though Mr. L'Amour is mostly famous for his Western novels (which, I hesitantly admit, do get a bit formulaic once you've read a dozen or so), my very favorite work of his is "Last of the Breed", a Cold War novel about a US Air Force pilot of Native American heritage who gets shot down on a secret mission over the USSR, and then escapes from captivity and makes his way across Siberia to the Bering Strait, pursued by Soviet henchmen.

In fact, now that you've reminded me, I need to find my old 1980s paperback and read it for the third or fourth time. Or maybe it's on Kindle by now.

If you liked last of the Breed find The Walking Drum for an education on the middle ages.

 

[woodsltc]

I always enjoyed how L'Amour was a stickler about correct geographical locations in his stories.

I like all of his books, but it was the series on the Sackett family from the Tennessee hills that hooked me into reading so many of his books. I was impressed how he worked some very out-of-the-way parts of Tennessee into these stories.....these were places that unless you were a "local" or did a lot of research (which he obviously did) would never know about.


Don

 

[Faulkner]

Although I am an avid reader I am a recent convert to Louis L'Amour's books. I read one of his books for the first time only a couple of years ago. Since then I have been devouring them. What got me started was I ran across a box full of once read Louis L'Amour paperbacks at a garage sale. There were 35 books in the box and I got the whole load for $5.00

I too really like the Sacket stories, but I agree with Absalom that my favorite so far is "Last of the Breed" with "Ferguson Rifle" a close 2nd.

 

[JohnRippert]

As mtgianni said, The Walking Drum is a excellent example of Mr L'Amour's writing style. I like the way he researched his stories. I may have to reread it after I finish Hondo.

 

[Calaveras Slim]

I like your collection!

I raised my boys on Louis L'Amour books. Our treat was to listen to the Louis L'Amour audio cassette tapes on Saturday nights. We did not allow a TV in our house when the boys were growing up.

The kind gentleman above gave a bad link....here is the correct one.

The Louis L'Amour Collection: About the Collection

Thanks for the correction. I typed it wrong

 

[Skeet 028]

Read 'em all. Got most of the Leatherette set for a buck a piece in a thrift shop on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The Westerns are good but the historicals like the Walking Drum are my favorites. The short stories are pretty good too. The Hoppalong books are also entertaining even though he hated writing them.

 

[walkin jack]

Mr. Rippert, that is very cool. I'm jealous.

 

[JohnRippert]

Read 'em all. Got most of the Leatherette set for a buck a piece in a thrift shop on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The Westerns are good but the historicals like the Walking Drum are my favorites. The short stories are pretty good too. The Hoppalong books are also entertaining even though he hated writing them.

Like Dad, I have read all of his books. We used to have all the paperbacks and those were at my place. When I moved back in before Dad passed away I was running out of room for books so I donated the paperbacks to the MD Anderson Cancer Center Library. Whenever I end up with a paperback or series that I know I am always going to keep I get it in hardback. Eventually I end up with a stack of paperbacks and I make a trip to donate them.