A Book That Didn't Take Forever

One book that I read recently, yet didn't list in the sidebar as a book that I was "currently taking forever to read", is "Down The Long Hills", by Louis L'Amour. I'd never read anything by this author, but I had long meant to do so. It wasn't entered because it was so much fun (and short enough) that I read it in a couple of days. By the time I thought about listing it in the blog, I was through with it!

I had expected some sort of cowboy tale, a shoot 'em up, like the TV movies that Tom Selleck often stars in (and which I generally like), but this was something a little less typical, about a young boy and girl who survive the massacre of their wagon train by Indians and their efforts to continue westward. The cowboy and Indian shootouts are fairly limited, but not the encounters with the perils of nature. It's a quick plain story that seldom milks the "gotcha" or tear-jerking parts of the plot, but definitely kept me wondering, "What happens next?"

I have a great appreciation of classic or literary works, books that are stylish and carefully written by talented craftsmen, but I love a story that just keeps my interest most of all. I plan to read some more L'Amour's books (there are a LOT of them!) and see if any of them are this same kind of good minimalist story. For me, it was a different kind of book and great fun.

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