Public reader discussion about Riders of the Purple Sage in the WeRead Catalog by Zane Grey.
By violet_pine
Hey everyone, I’m trying to find a book with more of that Wild West / cowboy / vintage Americana kind of feel. I’ve been really into East of Eden by John Steinbeck, and I also liked Killers of the Flower Moon and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I’m also a big fan of The Color Purple. And I genuinely enjoy Toni Morrison’s books too! Thanks, Tia :)
By Small-Mug1980
I keep thinking about all those old books from the 1800s and 1900s—so many of them are packed with these long, super romantic, really detailed descriptions. Polish lit from that era isn’t exactly mainstream, but to me it feels like the best example of that sad, melancholic way of painting everything. I’m honestly obsessed with it; it just gets me, like right in the chest, and makes my feelings tangle up. But most of the people around me hate it—they say it drags and ends up boring them to the point they’re kind of bitter about the whole book. What do you think? Do you like that kind of writing?
By Bookworm_Bronze
Most used bookstores around me seem to have a bunch of Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, and Max Brand. Are those classic Westerns actually worth reading, or am I just seeing the same titles everywhere?
By MoonQuill2006
I’m like 50 pages into the first one and I’m not totally feeling it yet. I was expecting something more in the vibe of Lonesome Dove, but Zane Grey’s prose is kind of a lot. Any good Western book recommendations?
By FABLEAPRON9
I grabbed those (and a bunch more) off Google Play Books—like 150 westerns total, including Riders of the Purple Sage and The Last of the Mohicans and a ton of others. They were only like two bucks. Now I just need some good cowboy music, ribs and coleslaw, maybe a couple of horseshoes for the wall, and I’m good to go.
By cup_cold
Last time we kicked off the genre talk with some noir, so I guess I’m gonna switch it up to my other favorite: westerns. I’m from Oklahoma, so they were just kind of always around growing up—part of the whole background noise of life. When I’d stay with my grandpa, we’d watch westerns together. He’d also bring me around his horses while he was working, but I was very much a “city kid,” and those huge animals always freaked me out a bit. Still, I really loved the myth-y vibe of westerns, and we watched a ton of them: John Wayne stuff (The Searchers was his favorite and then it became mine too), plus Shane, Cat Ballou, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Man from Snowy River, and a bunch more. And back then we’d catch miniseries too—Lonesome Dove, The Sacketts, that kind of thing. Later I got really into early Elmore Leonard, back when he was writing westerns before he leaned more into crime. I haven’t read a huge amount of western fiction, but I’ve definitely run into the big names a lot—Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, Larry McMurtry. There’s a lot of great stuff out there. One thing though: the label “western” feels kind of fuzzy. People define it differently, and it always seems to be some new version of what counts. Like I’ve seen folks call No Country for Old Men a western, and honestly I can see why. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada too—at least part of it. Hell or High Water as well, even if it’s a more modern setup, like Three Burials is. But There Will Be Blood? I really can’t see that one. My favorite western is Unforgiven, no question. But the first movie that popped into my head when I saw the word “western” this morning was The Ballad of Buster Scruggs—the Coens’ anthology thing that kind of covers a bunch of different western flavors. So yeah, what do you all think—do you love westerns, hate them, seen a bunch, a little, or basically none?
By acorn-reader44
Hey folks! I’ve been daydreaming about doing a US road trip someday, kind of in that *Travels with Charley* vibe—stopping for local food and culture and all that. It also made me wonder what it would be like to read a really good novel set in every state. I went back through my books from the past few years, picked out the ones that actually stuck with me, and figured out what state each one is set in… but there are a bunch of blanks. Any ideas for the states I left empty? I mostly like character-focused fiction, but I’m open to whatever fits. Also, if you think I missed a good one for a state I already picked, feel free to suggest that too. I can put everything together into one big list and share it once I’m done. Thanks! Alabama Alaska Arizona: *The Bean Trees* — Barbara Kingsolver Arkansas California: *East of Eden* — John Steinbeck Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida: *Their Eyes Were Watching God* — Zora Neale Hurston Georgia: *Gone with the Wind* — Margaret Mitchell Hawaii Idaho Illinois: *Something Wicked This Way Comes* — Ray Bradbury Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana: *The Awakening* — Kate Chopin Maine Maryland Massachusetts: *Monogamy* — Sue Miller Michigan: *Middlesex* — Jeffrey Eugenides Minnesota Mississippi Missouri: *Stoner* — John Williams Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire: *A Prayer for Owen Meany* — John Irving New Jersey New Mexico New York: *The Bell Jar* — Sylvia Plath North Carolina: *Serena* — Ron Rash North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island: *The Marriage Plot* — Jeffrey Eugenides South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia: *Demon Copperhead* — Barbara Kingsolver Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
By wiseShadow
I’m trying to pick the best Zane Grey novels—what are your favorites?
By DawnBookworm2
Hey y’all! I’ve been getting into Westerns again lately and decided to revisit Zane Grey. I started with *Fighting Caravans* (honestly, I think it’s kind of a hidden gem), and then I moved on to *The Mysterious Rider* but didn’t end up finishing it because real life got in the way. Still, I liked it a lot. I just picked up *Riders of the Purple Sage*, though, and I can’t say it really matched the hype for me. I’m not saying it’s bad—it’s a solid book—but I liked the other two more. It felt a little slow in places, and the ending just seemed kind of odd to me. I’m curious what everyone thinks about *Riders*. I’ve heard some people call it one of the best Westerns ever, so if that’s you, I’d love to know why. Maybe hearing your take will help it click for me. Thanks for reading!
By maplebookish3
So, spoilers, I guess. Also, I’ve never really posted here, so I hope I’m not way off base with what I’m saying. I finished *Butcher’s Crossing* last night. I’d been stuck in Vollmann for a bit, so I wanted something easier and tried those newer translated Mishima books (*Star and Life for Sale*), and then I went to Buzzati’s *The Tartar Steppe*. And now I feel like *Tartar Steppe* is messing with how I’m reading *Butcher’s Crossing*. To me, *Butcher’s Crossing* is basically about how dreams can be stupid and end up costing you everything. Will Andrews has all these options, but once he locks onto his dream he ends up with way fewer—like, he’s changed forever physically and mentally. And McDonald (the hide merchant) also kind of gets it too: his dream was folly. I’m also thinking it might be a critique of capitalism, but I’m not sure. Most people seem like they’d read it as McDonald = capitalism and Miller = labor, fighting it out. I don’t see it that cleanly. Williams was an academic, and I keep thinking about Burnham’s whole idea that capitalism gets replaced by managerialism, where managers end up having more power because companies depend on their skills. (And then Graeber basically roasted that idea with stuff like “bull— jobs,” if you know what I mean.) In that model, Miller would be more like management than labor. Miller feels like a top-tier manager to me. Even if he’s a worker—skilled, powerful, effective—his best work is organizing people and himself. Some folks might point out his “mistakes” (water, overhunting, staying too long), but I don’t think his goal is money at all. He wants to wipe out the herd, not hunt to sell hides. He manages without messing people up emotionally. Like, he doesn’t judge Andrews’ crew, and when situations start to go bad he handles them with the perfect words instead of making things worse. He even gets a seasoned skinner to train someone new. He’s good at pushing people through fear, even cold trauma. His “superpower,” I think, is controlling his own feelings. And until near the end, he’s basically perfect at it. But where does that control come from? When Schneider gets killed (and the whole wagon/hides situation goes bad), Miller just sums it up like, “A winter’s work—gone in two minutes” (or close). He seems to intellectualize everything. Even with human stuff—especially Andrews and Schneider—he cools his emotions down and just solves the problem. And it makes me wonder if Miller’s control comes from being traumatized himself, wilderness stuff or childhood stuff, and he decided to intellectualize as a trauma response. But then what does it lead to? It makes him end up in a real conflict with capital—except it’s kind of tragic that he can’t actually “hurt” McDonald the way he thinks. He does a crime, wrecks his reputation, and in the end it doesn’t even really damage McDonald, who was already getting ruined by the system he was part of. McDonald blames himself for having dreams, but he can’t blame the system because he can’t imagine another way it could work. I’m guessing the hide market got destroyed by the Panic of 1873. And it feels like Miller can’t take McDonald down without taking himself down too, so they don’t really clash until the end. I’m also not totally sure why Andrews funds the expedition. I’d expect Andrews to be strapped for cash and get talked into it by Miller, with McDonald paying Miller, like in a lot of other stories—but Williams is doing something more complicated. Miller does use less than half of Andrews’ money for the hunt (that 60/40 split thing with Hoge and Schneider is in there too, but I don’t know how that math works). And maybe Miller was protecting himself because he controlled Hoge but couldn’t fully control Schneider. Still, he could’ve taken all of Andrews’ money if he wanted—lied about costs, etc.—and didn’t. So I don’t think he straight-up ripped him off. I don’t know 1870s prices for everything, but even looking quick, oxen and wagon costs don’t sound like anything that would mean Miller was cheating him massively. Hoge and Schneider, to me, feel like expendable pieces for “the system.” Hoge doesn’t really resist because he knows he’ll get whisky and he has his book. Schneider complains, but folds anyway. If he’d saved money instead of spending it in town, maybe he could’ve funded his own hunt and quit once they had enough hides—like, he could’ve stayed safer. But with his weaknesses (women/drink) he’s easy to exploit. Andrews is harder for me to pin down. He kind of gets used by Miller, but also… he chooses what Miller offers. It feels like Miller didn’t exactly trick him, he just knew Andrews would demand to do the hunt once he heard the setup. One more thing I liked: Andrews and Francine. In their first interaction, Andrews reacts in a way that feels more real than what movies/books usually do. I actually liked that Williams shows men like that sometimes. I’ve seen similar “is that really how it goes?” vibes in stuff like *Seven Samurai*, *Kinkakuji*, and *The Day of the Locust*. But Francine also feels a little too perfect—too tolerant, too sympathetic, and too understanding in a way that makes me feel like it might not be fully believable. Also I’ve heard complaints that Williams doesn’t write great female characters. Francine can start to feel like an “object” that helps Andrews grow. Andrews absolutely treats her that way, but doesn’t that tell us more about Andrews and men than it does about her? And yeah—the writing. I liked the prose a lot. Short, to the point. Like Williams doesn’t waste time telling you stuff you don’t need. He fits a really great western into under 300 pages. Is it as great as *Blood Meridian*? I’m honestly not sure—wish I’d studied lit in college so I’d feel less clueless about judging this stuff. But I do know *Butcher’s Crossing* is my favorite western I’ve read, and I think it has to be on any list of best western novels.
By paper_volume
If you’re grabbing free ebooks from Amazon, don’t hit the “Read for Free” thing. Use “Buy Now” when the Kindle price shows $0.00 instead—“Read for Free” seems to be tied to Kindle Unlimited, which isn’t actually free since it costs money.
By novelglade50
If you’re grabbing those free ebooks from Amazon, don’t hit the “Read for Free” option. Use “Buy Now” instead when the Kindle price shows $0.00. The “Read for Free” thing seems to be tied to Kindle Unlimited, and that’s something you still have to pay for.
By harmony_reason
I really enjoyed the way Cormac McCarthy writes in Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men. The whole dark vibe is honestly super thrilling. I also liked The Sisters Brothers a lot and I’d recommend it. Any other books with a similar feel you think I should try?
By BlackMarble3
I’ve read *1984* and *Animal Farm*, but honestly I didn’t really pay attention to them as “literature” or anything like that. Beyond those, I’m pretty new to literature fiction. It kind of hit me just last night that there’s a difference between literature fiction and genre fiction. I knew there were different kinds of books (like *The Lord of the Rings* vs *Moby-Dick*), but I couldn’t really explain what the difference actually is. Now I want to start reading more “seriously,” whether that’s literature fiction, philosophy, or just stuff that makes you think. I’ll still read genre stuff too, no worries. :) So my actual question is: if you’re not really part of the literature crowd, how do you even tell whether a book is literature fiction or genre fiction before you read it? I know this might sound dumb, but I genuinely don’t know how to spot it ahead of time. Like, it’s possible to pick up a book that’s quietly literature fiction without realizing, and then you still get something out of it—*1984* is kind of like that for me. I enjoyed it, but I wasn’t carefully reading for deeper meaning the way people probably mean when they talk about literature. For instance, would something like *I Am Legend* count as literature fiction, or would it be more genre? What about *American Psycho*? And if you’ve read them, what would you point to that helps distinguish the two categories? Or if you’re in a real bookstore and you see some random book you’ve never heard of, how would you figure it out? Anyway, if my question seems obvious, that’s probably why it’s confusing to me—I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.
By martenreader56
I think what I dislike about omniscient stuff started after I read a bunch of Cormac McCarthy. Appreciate you all chiming in, though.
By cipherSail937
I’m kind of a newer listener, so I keep trying to figure this out. Were the New Riders made up of people who’d played in the Dead before the Warlocks thing got going? Or were they more like a side project—kind of like that part-time vibe Jerry, Phil, and Mickey had with JGB? And if it’s none of that, then maybe the New Riders were just a band the Dead knew and hung out with. Not sure which is right.
By MarginYarn51
So I finally picked up one of Colonel Potter’s books, since I’ve always liked him. I started “Riders of the Purple Sage” and I’m maybe a third in, but I’m kinda unsure what I think yet. It’s mostly long stretches of descriptions—trails, land, canyons, all that—then there’s not much dialogue or action in between. I can totally get why someone like Potter would be into it, though. I’m just not sure I’ll want to jump into another one after this.
By Epilogue825
I’m just trying to pick up a couple tips here. I read Zane Grey’s *Riders of the Purple Sage* and I genuinely liked it—it felt really beautiful. But when I look at his other stuff, it seems like he churned out a ton of westerns, and a lot of them get labeled as kind of filler. Does anyone have recommendations for the better ones? I’ve read a few westerns from Gunsmoke and Black Horse Books too, but the quality’s been all over the place. I especially liked how straightforward his writing felt, and that simple kind of poetry in *Riders*—it was really well done without trying to be fancy. Thanks!
By pineChapter
I’m trying to get into Westerns and I’m curious—what’s your favorite Western novel? Thanks for all the comments and suggestions so far!
By violetMole
Honestly, this feels like a chance to wreak a little havoc. I’ve done something similar the last few years: I start my reading each year with a crowd-made list that follows a theme. 2023 was A–Z titles, 2024 was A–Z biographies, and 2025 was greatest Westerns. The lists are filled with books friends/people online toss my way that I probably wouldn’t pick up otherwise. And since I’ll read whatever ends up on the list, they definitely go for stuff that’ll bug me—like the Britney Spears autobiography (I ended up giving it 5/5), the Notorious RGB book (4/5), or something ridiculous and super long like *Centennial* (1,056 pages, still somehow 5/5). So… my “mission,” I guess, is for you to suggest a theme for this next year. The more potential for mischief/annoyance the better. Bonus points if you include an example of what would be on the list.