There's probably no really fair or adequate way to review a book like THE PORTABLE WESTERN READER, so let me just say I have been enjoying it tremendously, sampling random pieces from it aperiodically over the last couple of years since finding this dog-eared copy at the local thrift shop.

Ably edited by William Kittredge (about as authentic a westerner as you could find), whose fine ranch memoir, A HOLE IN THE SKY, has been a favorite of mine for many years, the book ranges from ancient Native American folk tales and legends, through recognized classic writers like Mari Sandoz, Jack London, John Steinbeck, Norman MacLean, Larry McMurtry, and Mary Clearman Blew, all the way up to more modern writers like Edward Abbey, Richard Hugo, Raymond Carver and Tess Gallagher. Theodore Roethke, and Allen Ginsberg. Some of my favorite pieces are from Sherman Alexie, Wallace Stegner, Ivan Doig and McMurtry. A lot of the selections I had read before, but was happy to revisit them. And perhaps some of the best parts of the whole experience are all the little thumbnail bios and explanations provided by editor Kittredge throughout the text, simply filled with little tidbits of information for the booklover in me. I still have not read everything in these six hundred-plus pages, but I will keep working my way through it all. It's a great book to keep at your bedside or in that other home inner sanctum, next to the old Readers Digests and Guideposts. This is indeed a book full of treasures. Thanks to Missoulan Bill Kittredge for all of his work in compiling it. Highly recommended. ( )

I bought this one in a post-college effort to broaden myself on the cheap: buy anthologies, and then read more stuff by the authors whose entries I liked. Worked, too. ( )