Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Oh...and of course the greatest Western novel ever written, and winner of the Pulitzer prize, Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove."
Those two books are the reason why I am very reluctant to start a long book. I thought Pillars was a colossal waste of time, but I think I read it right to the end.. Lonesome was really good for the first several hundred pages, then it seemed like McMurtry got tired of writing, and turned it over to his graduate students to finish up for him. I quit somewhere in the second half, and haven't started another long book since.
If "the greatest western novel ever written" wasn't by Cormac McCarthy for his Border Trilogy, then it is "Shavetail" by Thomas Cobb.
I loved Lonesome Dove to the very end, and actually missed the characters when I was finished reading it!
I like everything I've ever read by McMurtry. Another favorite of his (for me) is "Some Can Whistle." Not as long as Lonesome Dove though and this thread is about long books!
Those two books are the reason why I am very reluctant to start a long book. I thought Pillars was a colossal waste of time, but I think I read it right to the end.. Lonesome was really good for the first several hundred pages, then it seemed like McMurtry got tired of writing, and turned it over to his graduate students to finish up for him. I quit somewhere in the second half, and haven't started another long book since.
If "the greatest western novel ever written" wasn't by Cormac McCarthy for his Border Trilogy, then it is "Shavetail" by Thomas Cobb.
You need to brush up on your history if Western History if you think the last part of Lonesome Dove was not written by McMurtry, or was uninspired. Sounds like your one of those elderly folk who simply cannot maintain reading comprehension and attention for longer novels. I understand. But to say the latter part of LD was inferior is simply to betray your understanding of the entire novel.
The whole part about Gus dying? LOL. here's a hint: Goodnight. I'll leave it to you to figure it out. and another hint: homage. Cormac McCarthy couldn't carry LM's pens. LOL.
Here's an idea for Cormac: go back to school and learn basic sentence structure and punctuation. Oh, and how to use quotation marks and CAPITAL LETTERS for proper names and nouns! LOL
My impersonation of a CM excerpt: "and oh man when larry boy saw jimmy bob come out of the cabin he said hey partner i got a bone to pick with you over that little lady and then jimmy bob said well sir that aint no skin off my hide and then he shot him in the face and old yeller his dog came over tail a waggin and licked thr blood off of the gaping hole in his chest as the sun melted in the western sky."
I just did that in three minutes! LOL. And gee, it was so easy a child could do it. That whole Stream of Consciousness idea (that's what CM's style is called in case you don't know) is a lame euphemism for somebody who never learned syntax and composition.
And even if you want to put CM in your list, the Border Trilogy isn't even his best work. That honor belongs to Blood Meridian, nor No Country For Old Men. The movie "All the Pretty Horses" was better than the book.
I found most of the Border Trilogy to be an overly long and treacly weepy homage to the dying of the Old West and its ways. But if that's your cup of cowboy coffee, so be it.
Last edited by The_Southpaw; 08-24-2015 at 11:20 AM..
I loved Lonesome Dove to the very end, and actually missed the characters when I was finished reading it!
I like everything I've ever read by McMurtry. Another favorite of his (for me) is "Some Can Whistle." Not as long as Lonesome Dove though and this thread is about long books!
Carry on!
I agree! It's truly one of the greatest books ever written. The old guy in the post above was the first person I ever heard say they didn't like it. Some people though just don't have the attention span/mental faculties to finish and maintain their reading comprehension for a 500-plus page tome, so although they THINK the latter part of the book is boring or not as good, what's really happening is their concentration powers are weaning--happens a lot to the elderly--and they simply cannot any longer appreciate the quality of the work. Like looking at a Picasso when your eyesight is dimming.
I also think the mini-series for Lonesome Dove was one of the Greatest Western Movies of all-time. (If we could count it as a movie.) Hey: that would be a good thread right there! LOL.
I don't even think about the size of a book now that I use a Kindle. I'm rereading The Passage by Cronin right now, and I believe it's around 800 pages. I just glance at the "percent remaining" number occasionally, but I love the book so much the pages just fly by.
I loved the Passage by Justin Croning. It didn't seem so long when reading on my kindle though.
However, the longer the book the better. At least when the story is good
I enjoyed the Outlander series (sorry but I'm a fiction reader) by Diana Gabaldon as well as the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. I also loved Gone with the Wind and Scarlett.
Ken Follet only made it to my car as audio book so far. I loved The Pillars of the Earth. I also have the book (which is on my to-read-pile) and I also loved the movie adaption.
I read some Michener books as a kid/teen: Centennial, Caravans, Hawaii, The Source, and The Covenant.
A decade or so later, when my dad told me his favorite Michener was Chesapeake, I gave it a try and lost interest. A few years ago I tried Mexico, and other than the very early parts, it was awful. I quit.
My favorite, by far, was The Covenant.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
