Reading - A Great Writerly Adventure

The deadline to turn in my column was sneaking up on me but not quietly, not like the Indians in the Old West are reputed to have snuck up on people. It was more like when you see a cat getting situated in a pouncing position; you know for sure there’s about to be a pounce.

In the meantime, I’d been listening to Larry McMurtry’s Dead Man’s Walk, the audio book. Westerns aren’t typically a genre that interests me, but Mr. McMurtry’s writing style draws me in like a bronc rider to a rodeo. His characters -- not just the central figures, Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call -- seem as real as my critique partners. And the author’s scene descriptions are so effective; I’ve begun to feel incredibly blessed. I’m thankful to sit in air conditioning with food in my refrigerator -- even though there’s no roast or steak -- and a lock on my front door -- even though I don’t own the townhouse it’s attached to. My situation sure beats walking, hungry and thirsty, across vast desert plains because my horses and pack mules have been stolen -- not to mention being stalked by murderous Comanches like the Texas Rangers in Dead Man’s Walk are.

The gratefulness that the audio book awakened in me even extends to news watching. Yes, things are bad, particularly in the Middle East right now, but things could certainly be worse. British intelligence could have not recently discovered the liquid bomb airplane plot before it happened, for instance. Even hearing about the near miss, my life’s pressures, like perpetually rising gas prices, seem a lot less weighty. And at least I have a mount – er, car to put gas in.

There’s no denying it; my worldview has shifted for having read a Larry McMurtry western adventure.

Ted Dekker also has enviable writing skills. I was voraciously reading some of his books at home during the time I was listening to the adventures of Gus and Woodrow in my car. Many of Mr. Dekker’s descriptions are the freshest I’ve come across. I’m twenty-first in e-line at the Harris County Library to check out Heaven’s Wager, one of his titles. Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter that’s posted on the library website:
“An overhead fan swished through the afternoon heat above Padre Francis Cadione's head, squeaking once every rotation, but otherwise not a sound disturbed the silence in the small, dimly lit room.”

Writing about great reads, I beat my column deadline. Now perhaps the only pouncing to be done is my snatching up Comanche Moon, the second prequel to Lonesome Dove.

(published September 2006)