Been going back and reading my dad’s collection of Zane Grey books. It’s been a lot of fun, especially as I am now looking at them from a whole different perspective than when I read them as a teenager. The writing style of the turn of the century from 1899 to 1900 was quite different from the way we express ourselves today. I was quite astonished, also, to find that he had written a number of nonfiction works. Some of these were accounts of his trips to northern Arizona roping cougars in the Grand Canyon with a hunter who was older, and had experience the great buffalo slaughter of the 70s. The same wonderful narrative, and realistic dialogue, to say nothing of his colorful descriptive passages, are there in these exciting, dramatic, and often funny stories. The way he exposes you to the discomforts of days ago does her travel with intense heat and sand blowing in your eyes, then the cold and windy mountains, in the rain and lightning while trying to sleep in a tarp out on the open plains, makes you feel as though you’ve actually experienced those discomforts. Then he treats you to sunsets and spellbinding vistas of mountains , Forests and canyons, where Clearstream’s team with trout and deer and bears abound while they are people with both rugged Westerners and intruders from the civilized eastern culture. He characters are realistic and multi dimensional, with bad guys tinged with vulnerabilities and good guys who are slightly flawed, that make them more believable than their Hollywood counterparts. He deals with women in more depth even then some 21st-century authors, looking into their lives with understanding and sympathy. If you’re looking for a way to spend a rainy day (and brother we’re having them) I heartily recommend a good Zane Grey book.