What I Talk About When I Talk About Things That Gwen Makes Fun Of Me For

It’s summer! It’s vacation time! Know what you need? A really big, epic book to read – and I have just the book for you. Two words, my little book kittens: LONESOME. DOVE. The Pulitzer winner by Larry McMurtry. Now, I know I’m a little late to the Lonesome Dove party. And trust me, I’ve been kicking myself for it.

See, I’ve been very remiss in keeping up with my reading this year. (I’ve had a serious case of puppy love, and it’s hard to read when you’re busy batting your eyelashes.) But I recently got back into the swing of things and decided I wanted to read something EPIC, something CLASSIC, so I turned to my friends…on Twitter. (Hahaha, you think I have friends IRL?!!)

For those of you Twitter-naysayers, let me tell you: since I started talking with people about books on Twitter, it has increased the number of books I read that I *enjoy* exponentially. So, I asked the Twitter masses, “What epic book should I read?” The internet answered back with a resounding “LONESOME DOVE!”

Now, I’ve owned a copy for years. And I will admit – I judged this book by its cover. It’s a washed-out yellow, with a lousy oil painting of the West. It looked so BORING, I’ve never paid it much mind. But the people were telling me YES, so I dug through the piles in my house and eventually found it…

…AND WAS IMMEDIATELY HOOKED. One thing I didn’t know about Lonesome Dove is how FUNNY it is. The banter between the Texas Rangers is fantastic. And the story is so compelling. I couldn’t put it down – and it’s almost 1,000 pages long. As a Cormac McCarthy fan, I was thrilled by the post-Civil War period I’ve come to love in novels. And the whole time I was reading it, I was struck by the fact that this is how people really used to live. Snakes and scalpings and sandstorms, oh my! When I finished reading it, it was like I lost a friend - I was so depressed that I slept with it under my pillow. I made the mistake of repeating this to a customer in front of Gwen, who now teases me incessantly about it. (She just read a book called You Don’t Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps – what does that tell you?)

So, Lonesome Dove is on our staff pick table for July, meaning it’s 20% off the whole month*. If you’re still on the fence, come in and check it out – I’d be happy to gush about it some more.

* The discount is available in-store only.