Since this is now generally the Larry McMurtry thread, last night I read Last Kind Words Saloon for the first time.

I know the Earps were not the heroes they were presented to be in Tombstone, but how close is this portrayal to reality? Made Wyatt seem like a Grade A *******

I read this book over the many days my dad was in the hospital before he passed. I literally can't see the cover now without choking up. Great book. Bad memories.

Straight Talk said:

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Any one here ever read "Log of a Cowboy" by Andy Adams? If you ever talk to McMurtry, don't mention this book to him!

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If you want to go down that road, also check out Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas (Shameless plug because my family has two chapters related to them). Keep in mind way back then southwest meant the San Antonio area.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1086947134/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

You'll recognize some names in that book. Some of the tertiary characters in LD were real people.

It was undeniably some of Larry Mcmurtry's source material. Bonus points for being true stories... fact can be 10x more spectacular than fiction.

I saw Bob Schneider last week at the Kessler in Dallas and it was awesome. I've probably seen him 20 times since 2003 and he's never disappointed. One of the Texas music GOAT's.

Spaceship said:

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I saw Bob Schneider last week at the Kessler in Dallas and it was awesome. I've probably seen him 20 times since 2003 and he's never disappointed. One of the Texas music GOAT's.

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Agree. We are never disappointed with his shows.

ac04 said:

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my favorite book. never seen the miniseries.

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You're doing yourself a disservice. Career highs for Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. Some of the other characters may be less than what you expected based on the book, but they absolutely nailed Gus & Woodrow.

SWCBonfire said:

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ac04 said:

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my favorite book. never seen the miniseries.

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You're doing yourself a disservice. Career highs for Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. Some of the other characters may be less than what you expected based on the book, but they absolutely nailed Gus & Woodrow.

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I watched the miniseries when it first came out and I was about 15, we didn't have a VHS copy of it until much later so I actually read the book before I saw it again. I was probably 20 when I read the book.

Reading the book, every line that Gus had in the book I was picturing Duval and the same with Call and Jones. The other characters not so much, although Glover's Deets was great he was just a bit too old to match up with book Deets.

Book Deets, Jake and Pea were all the same age and about 10 years younger than Gus and Woodrow. In the miniseries they were all about the same age as Call and Gus and it didn't mesh for me.

The miniseries and book were both so well done that either work perfectly on their own, though.

Still the best book I've ever read. I loved it so much that I forced myself to put it down because I didn't want it to be over. An autographed copy sits on our mantle in the living room. It's the one book that everyone in our family has read. We talk about Gus and Call like they are real people.

Saw the miniseries after I read the book and thought the casting was perfect.

The other books in the series I would rank like this:
Commanche Moon
Dead Man's Walk
Streets of Laredo

None of them hold a candle to LD. I've heard that McMurtry was in a state of depression when he wrote Streets of Laredo, and it shows.

Aggies76 said:

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Still the best book I've ever read. I loved it so much that I forced myself to put it down because I didn't want it to be over. An autographed copy sits on our mantle in the living room. It's the one book that everyone in our family has read. We talk about Gus and Call like they are real people.

Saw the miniseries after I read the book and thought the casting was perfect.

The other books in the series I would rank like this:
Commanche Moon
Dead Man's Walk
Streets of Laredo

None of them hold a candle to LD. I've heard that McMurtry was in a state of depression when he wrote Streets of Laredo, and it shows.

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I first read LD a few years ago. I waited a bit and then read Dead Man's Walk and Comanche Moon. In December I listened to the audio book version of LD as a refresher and in January of this year sat down to read Streets of Laredo. I got about 100 pages in and haven't been back to it yet.

I'm sure I will go back and finish it eventually, but after barely getting into it I was so dissatisfied and found myself wishing I hadn't even started it so I could have left those characters where they were at the end of LD.

aggierogue said:

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Hubert J. Farnsworth said:

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It really is a great book. I'm not sure if you know, but Lonesome Dove is part of a series. There are 3 other books. "Dead Man's Walk", "Comanche Moon" and "Streets of Laredo". They cover other parts of Augustus and Woodrows lives. You really should read them. Comanche Moon is still my favorite of the four. I blame Larry McMurtry for hooking me on bittersweet stories. He really was an American treasure.

P.S. I've always liked Bob Schneider. Great music. That's pretty cool that he talked about Lonesome Dove at a concert and convinced you to read it.

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I may check out Comanche Moon. I'm not sure I want to know what happens after Lonesome Dove as I like to imagine Call going back to Montana with Newt.

Yeah, Bob is great. His Lonelyland shows are great if you've never taken one in.

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Comanche Moon is the 2nd of the 4 and takes place before Lonesome Dove. It was my favorite book of the series.

You are correct on the happenings after Lonesome Dove. It is probably best left up to your imagination. Streets of Laredo was easily the bottom one in my ranking.

Just finished re-reading Streets Of Laredo and enjoyed it much more the second time. Lowered expectations perhaps, but think I paid different/better attention to the other characters this time and found them more interesting and enjoyable. Turns out the story isn't necessarily about Call

Based on three pages of comments above and the fact that I don't particularly care for westerns or long books, I've decided not to read any more from this series other than Lonesome Dove. I reckon I like the titles of the other books, but 800 pages makes me weary, and I won't tolerate it.

SWCBonfire said:

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Straight Talk said:

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Any one here ever read "Log of a Cowboy" by Andy Adams? If you ever talk to McMurtry, don't mention this book to him!

---

If you want to go down that road, also check out Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas (Shameless plug because my family has two chapters related to them). Keep in mind way back then southwest meant the San Antonio area.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1086947134/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

You'll recognize some names in that book. Some of the tertiary characters in LD were real people.

It was undeniably some of Larry Mcmurtry's source material. Bonus points for being true stories... fact can be 10x more spectacular than fiction.

It must be an interesting book, the story of which impressed me. For me, reading is a source of knowledge. It's especially needed now during my studies. Thanks to reading I am able to articulate my thoughts intelligently. I even tried to check my work https://fixgerald.com/ for plagiarism. And they were unique.

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Thanks, useful for me.