Lonesome Dove

My papau loaned me this one when I was home visiting my family last since I saw his copy of the videos on a shelf and mentioned that I still never had watched it. He insisted that I needed to read the book before I watched and then took me out to the workshop where he keeps his favorite westerns (mostly Zane Gray) and gave me a copy of the book as well as loaning me the tapes when we got back inside. So watching will be the next step.

I think what I was most surprised by was the fact that it just plain wasn't quite what I expected. I was expecting a straight adventure story, I suppose, something that reminded me of the Young Guns movies (my primary indoctrination into westerns as a genre). Instead it was, yes, an adventure story but with a lot more emotional scope and depth than I'd expected. I was sad when I finished it and realized I was all out of story. So even if you aren't generally a western fan (or like me don't even know enough to know whether you are or not), I'd say to give this one a try. It starts out a bit slow, but once things pick up, there's always something going on.