Recently I have been writing a western style fantasy so I thought I should read some classic western fiction. I had read some L'amour a long time ago so I went with him.
He has a very nice writing style and even if you didn't know who wrote the book, you can tell that he wrote it.
He writes everything from short stories to novels to poetry. I've some of his novels and short stories. (I left his poems alone. The only poet I like is Poe.)

His short stories are the best in my opinion. He builds tension well and the short form works well with his cowboy stories. But he did not write only western stories, he writes science fiction, historical fiction and detective stories. I only read his western ones since I was doing research.
A lot of his stories do seem very similar and most aren't very deep, but they are always a lot of fun.

His novels I don't like as much as his short stories. He is better at the short form I think. His novels seem to drag a bit most would work better as a short story. But some of the novels are really good. And many of his novels are more deep than the short stories.

L'Amour himself was was quite worthy of being in one of his own stories. Grew up in the west traveling all over with his family. Then as an adult he was a mine assessment worker, professional boxer and merchant seaman. While being a seaman he also got to see many other countries. So growing up in the west in the early 1920's he met many men from the wild west peak whom he heard many stories from.
What's probably my favorite thing about him is that his stories have the romantic feel of the old west but they still have a foot in the reality of what the old west really was like.

So I would highly recommend Louis L'Amour. Try some of his short stories. Some are only a few pages.
(Only warning is there is some minor language since they are cowboys.)

I have never even heard of this author, Joe; but I like western themed stories etc, so I'll look into his writings. Thanks for sharing!

My grandfather's favorite author is Louis L'Amour. He has tried to find someone who is equal or better than Louis at writing westerns (in his opinion) but hasn't succeeded.

I've only read one of his books, the historical fiction novel Last of the Breed. I really enjoyed that book and I recommend it to anyone interested in reading his books.

I've been wanting to read some of his stuff since he's the biggest Western writer out there.

I love Louis L'Amour! I find his Western stories to be extremely interesting. One of my favorite stories, however, would have to be The Walking Drum, by L'Amour of course. Unlike all his other books (that I've found), this one actually takes place in Europe/Central Asia during medieval times.

It was the first I read by him and it was so good I went on to read the Westerns, even though I don't generally care for that sort of novel.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to go buy that book for my eReader right now (it was a library book)!

eru

*pokes Andrew*
While you're at it, get Last of the Breed. It's perfect research for TWM.

*must do that*

eru

I just finished a collection of his stories. I loved them.