Loree's Top Ten Books of the West
Literature of the American West encompasses many things. Fiction, poetry, memoir, biography, travelogue and historical texts can all be found beneath its broad banner. Coming up with just ten titles, then, is a ridiculous exercise. There are so many other books I could have included. Books such as... Travels With Charley was probably the first book to put 'the West' on my radar when I was just 11 or 12 years old was . We'd probably been reading Of Mice and Men or The Red Pony at school, and rather than turning me off of Steinbeck - as so often happens when books are studied at that age - it sparked a love which continues to this day. The book recounts the journey Steinbeck made around the perimeter of the United States in 1960, in the company of his standard poodle, Charley. It was probably the dog that first attracted me to the book, but it's the movement of the narrative which really sticks with me. Travels is not about the West at all, of course, but rather