As a kid I loved those Friday night midnight monster movies.When I got a little older I was amazed to find out that many of these movies began as books! Yay! Now I didn't have to wait for Friday night to get my fix. It took quite some time to track down the books. This was before Amazon, the Internet, and certainly before most of these were available in an elementary school library. If the book was there, I'll bet most of you haven't used a card catalog. But since I'm as old as dirt, you will hear from me often about my treacherous, villainous laptop.
I stuffed my list with books I have access to, then seasoned it with several fun books in the Juvenile range, & a few door-stopper, elbow-cracking tomes. I've read perhaps a third of the titles here. Most of those were pre-college, so before 1973. I've only returned to a few of them. Here I'm going back to those neglected volumes to pick up where I left off and continue on through the "Complete Works of _________."
Thanks to Kindle Books I should be able to start accumulating more. :^) I might be able to add to my paperless library for a second 50 Classics. You'll notice a few religious works. As I've aged, I've become deeply interested in world religion and world mythology. After I see what sort of interest there is in a ~pleasant~ exchange of ideas and values, I would love to host a blog for that.
KELDA
SHANE BY JACK SHAEFER
ReplyDeleteShane is one of the top Western books and movies.The narrator and interpreter is a boy approx 10 years old who lives on a homestead farm with his parents Joe and Marian Starrett. A range war is brewing in Wyoming 1800s. Cattlebaron, Fletcher, has been using his own men to threaten & torment the homesteaders. He has almost the same reaction as the puzzled do:there is something dangerous about this man,but what is it? He's a small,slim,soft voiced man with an easy
demeanor. He doesn't wear a gun. He & Joe will drink
coffee and talk farm chores.While Marian bakes an apple pie,he tells her about how ladies' hats in bigger towns have changed. Bob adores him, and follows him around like a puppy.Fletcher brings in gunslinger who literally takes one look and walks away. Fletcher orders Chris to handle what the heck - he can handle this small man. Shane beats him bloody and breaks his arm. So there, boy. Fletcher hires a gunslinger- a real one ,who won't run out.Bob tries to understand what's going on.Mother and Father seem to be at odds about whether Shane should go into town. Marian is angry that Joe will try to push Shane back into his dark past. Joe's input is that if he himself is killed, his family will be in "better hands." Just as the entire book has kept Shane's past in a dim fog,the last chapter extends into the future. He has killed his tormentors, but Bob sees blood on his shirt. Shane refuses to go back to the farm,and rides away.