The Love of Books

A hefty title indeed {smile} .... In conversation with @galenkp the subject of books came up, inspired mainly by the fact that he has , figuratively speaking, devoured six books to date during the lock down period. Now I had an interesting child hood and grew up in a very interesting period, the late 60's and through the 70's and 80's. For a little bit of background you can read my blog post here.

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I was a prolific reader in my childhood and teens into young adulthood. As responsibilities increased the reading slackened off , going from twelve to fifteen books a month to around five or six.This post will be part one on initially books that I read constantly as entertainment from nine years old to around thirteen years...and then the first books which had a real impact on my development and started me searching for answers.

My favourite author for the first few years of my life was definitely Louis L'Amour, mainly a writer of Westerns but later he did do some History books around the two World Wars.

The Sacket Brand - Louis L'Amour
Forty gunslingers from the Lazy A have got Tell Sackett cornered under the Mogollon Rim. They're fixing to hang him if they can capture him alive, fill him extra full of lead if they can't. But the Sacketts don't cotton to that kind of treatment. Hunt one Sackett and you hunt 'em all.

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JT Edson was also an author we loved, especially his hero Dusty Fog...the quickest draw in the west.

JT Edson
The huge procession of characters from book to book ensured that the first few pages of an Edson book always ended up looking alike, with descriptions of a small, insignificant looking Dusty Fog, who suddenly appeared to become a giant when villains he faced down felt the full force of his personality, the tall and Greek-god handsome Mark Counter, the baby faced but highly dangerous, black dressed, rifle and bowie knife toting Ysabel Kid, and various other characters.

Starting high school really introduced me to different genre's of books, the Westerns being books from home which my father and brothers read. The first book beyond Westerns I read was Cave of the Ancients by Lobsang Rampa, followed immediately by The Third Eye. I was gobsmacked and absolutely riveted ... spirits actually exist and are visible?

https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Cave-Of-The-Ancients/9781606110607
The Lama opened the again and said, "In a far-off country across the seas the general ability to see Nature Spirits has been lost. If one sees such a Spirit it is a matter for jest, the Seer is literally accused of 'seeing things.' Western people do not believe in things unless they can be torn to pieces or held in the hands, or put in a case. A Nature Spirit is termed a Fairy in the West --and Fairy Tales are not believed!"

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/768884.The_Third_Eye
T. Lobsang Rampa was preordained to be a Tibetan priest, a sign from the stars that could not be ignored. When he left his wealthy home to enter the monastery, his heart was filled with trepidation, with only a slight knowledge of the rigorous spiritual training and physical ordeal that awaited him .

Lobsang Rampa started me on the road to enlightenment.... well, that is overstating the case but I did start looking for understanding around spirituallity and 'the meaning of life' {thanks Douglas Adams}

Tomorrow I will get into the more serious stuff that really did impact my life at the time

Thanks for stopping by !!

Namaste