Improving Yourself Louis L’Amour Style.

If you have read my blog biography you will know that I like reading (& watching) Westerns. Thus it should come as no surprise, to find that among my favourite writers is one Louis L’Amour. (W. C. Tuttle, is another favourite!) Whilst writing my recent blogs about improving oneself, I was reminded of a Book that Louis wrote about his early life after leaving school at 15 and wandering the world.

The book is called the “”Education Of A Wandering Man” and reports his various jobs and activities that he undertook in his early wanderings. Many of these jobs were in isolated places or on ships and places where extra curricular activities were scarce and reading was one of the few escapes from loneliness and isolation. As you read this book you get the feeling that it is as much about the books that he read at each place, it was the place itself.

In his early years books were scarce and often left for others to read and many of the Books Louis read were classics of that and earlier periods, thus he read many, many books that only the very sophisticated read today. The so-called lost classics.

Yes, instead of writing a novel like his westerns, Louis simply tells of his life story by telling you what he did and where he was at the time and what books he read there.

As much as telling his storey which it did, it was more of a list of the books he had read through the early years of his life and how they helped educate him.

As he stayed, worked or simply visited various places, he read all the books that were there where he was. Thus he got his education from both life itself and from books.

Of course the type of books available then were not as varied or as many as available now, but he did read all the classics of his day and benefited from the knowledge in them, and in turn was able to use much of this knowledge of books to write his own books when his time came.

What about you? Are you taking the trouble to educate yourself through reading? If so, with the very wide choice of reading material available today are you reading wisely?

Who knows. Maybe you will be a famous writer too one day? Even if not, there will be countless opportunities to use that knowledge to help others along the way. At the very worst, you can always join me and write a Blog. What say you? Walter