Even Cowboys Read - Exploring and Discussing Some of My Book Collection

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Good morning, Dwayne here. Tack room Bible talk. Doing something a little bit different today. Um, but I've had a lot of requests. Those of you who've been on this channel for a long time, you know that I'm a big proponent of reading. Um, and uh, I did the video the other day about the uh, lighting and pipe loading and lighting a pipe and how it works.

[00:00:27]and I've gotten a lot of interest and request in the books on the shelf. So, I'm going to kind of go through them here. Now, these are obviously not all of my books. Um, but these are books that are um pretty important to me. Now, my reading is eclectic. I don't read the way most people do today.

[00:00:52]uh I don't read the type of literature uh that is mainstream and uh some of these books I've bought. A lot of these books have been given to me. I've picked up in different places and I just kind of want to give a rundown of the books here and uh and see if maybe you can pick up some some ideas and maybe you can understand a little bit more of how my goofy brain works. Okay. So, we'll just I'm just going to go down it and we'll just uh we'll just see what happens. We'll start over here. I've had this book for a long long time.

[00:01:29]It's poetry for a lifetime. Uh and it was uh they were selected by Samuel Norfle um Anthridge.

[00:01:40]I've had that book for years. I've read it so many times. It's it's just a collection of a lot of poetry. Uh if you've been here any length time, you know that uh I'm real big on poetry.

[00:01:51]Poetry is it's not most people don't understand poetry. Poetry is expressing expressing a thought, expressing a feeling, expressing something, but doing it in a um doing it in a way that uh how do I say that?

[00:02:18]Um it it's it's taking a thought and it's building the thought itself remains but it's expressing it in such a way um that it just makes it mean I don't know mean more but mean more okay so the the second one is the song of uh Hiwa by Henry Longfellow my favorite poet and uh This edition here is actually illustrated by Frederick Remington. Um, and so it's it's pretty special. And so I've got that.

[00:03:00]We people are unable to communicate well today because if they do read they read a lot of modern stuff and we don't have a grasp of the English language and a vocabulary and the structure of putting vocabulary together in a meaningful way like they did back then. And so the next one I have is I have a book of collected poetry uh by Ogden Nash.

[00:03:33]Another poet. Nash is not everybody's taste. Uh he can be costic. He can be sarcastic. Um but he's he's enjoyable to read. in the way that he expresses things gives you another again taking that thought that common thought and looking at it from another direction. Uh here I have a very large leatherbound book is collected works of Mark Twain. It's got the adventures of Tom Sawyer, the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, uh Mark Twain sketches and his burlesque autobiography, The Prince and the Popper, and the Connecticut Yankee and King Arthur's Court. Um I have a biography on Washington, George Washington that a friend gave me. I have here another leatherbound book. This is the art of war and other classics of Eastern thought. I have two or three. I don't have it here.

[00:04:35]I have two or three um different editions of the art of war.

[00:04:41]One of the things reading like that I've read it like three times and I don't even pretend to understand 99% of it, but there are thoughts and ways of looking things in there. Um, probably no other book has affected my approach to horse training, believe it or not, than this book. Um, and so to me, that's been a very important um, book over the years. I read that a different edition of it, but I read that when I was 12, I think, or somewhere in that age. Um, and it has really formed a lot of my thoughts and a lot of my approaches to things. And it didn't really take shape until I got older. Uh, it didn't really affect me. The things that I picked up, the thoughts and the concepts and the philosophies that I picked up out of that, I wasn't ready for. Um and then when I got older in the last few years and some of that stuff I started facing things and some of that stuff came back said hey you know what here's an approach to this um and I started applying some of it and and now it has made a tremendous difference. A lot of times reading is like sewing a seed in a garden. You read it and you don't it doesn't bear fruit immediately.

[00:06:12]Okay. Um but over time it starts growing and one day one day you'll find all of a sudden that that that uh that seed that you sowed has borne fruit that you need at that time.

[00:06:29]And when you wait until you're 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, and you start reading stuff like this, um, sometimes you'll find that it's a little late uh, for you to get the full benefit of it because that thought, that concept, that approach, that view has not had time to be watered by your experience, to be watered by your tears, to be watered by um, your failures to be watered by other things that have happened in your life and it hasn't had time to grow and it hasn't had time uh to bear the fruit that it that it could actually actually bear. Uh the next book I have of course is Marcus Aurelius Meditations. Um I'm want to say about this one and I've got another book in here that I'll bring up in a minute.

[00:07:26]any of these books, you have to read any book, any book, you have to read critically.

[00:07:34]You can't take a book like meditations and say, "Well, I like what Dwayne says in his videos and he reads meditations and he's a proponent of it. Therefore, that must be a stellar book and therefore I'm going to read that and apply that to my life." I don't do that and you shouldn't do that either. You should read it and you should critically think about and chew on every every thought that comes in that book.

[00:08:05]Some of it will help you, some of it will apply, and some of it won't because you're not a Roman um you're not a uh what's the word I want?

[00:08:19]Caesar of Rome. and uh who studied under Greek philosophers and who dealt what he dealt with and whose environment was what his environment was. But the general thoughts and philosophies um can help you. But you don't take anything that anybody uh writes down as just solid gospel unless it's the solid gospel I've got. Because they're taller, they won't fit in here. Here, I got them off to the side, but there's three Bibles in here. And I got another one over there. And I've got another one in there. Even that that is the Bible is the truth. But even the Bible, when you read the Bible, you need to question your understanding of it. Okay? You need to question what people tell you that that actually means. You don't read and take anything in blindly. Okay? And that includes these. The next book I would say if I were going to be stranded in the mountains or or on an island for an extended period of time and stuck by myself and I could only take a couple books, this is one I would consider. Uh this is just 101 famous poems uh that's been compiled by Roy Cook and there it's just it's small. A lot of times when I'm traveling I've taken this with me and I can just sit in the evening somewhere. I don't watch TV in motel rooms. It's just junk. Uh, and sometimes I can just open it up and just pull out a poem or two and and read it and chew on it and it's very easy to carry. Um, the next one I have is Humorous Tales from Roger Kipling. Uh, if all you know about Kipling's work is Disney, then you don't know Kipling. All right. Disney bastardized everything of Kiplings they ever put out. The first time I read The Jungle Book, I was hesitant to read it because I'm like, that's a kid story and a kids cartoon. I was completely blown away uh by that story from Kipling. Uh his his uh his novels, Jungle Book, Kim, fantastic story. The man who would be king, another fantastic story. His his novels are wonderful. his stories, Ricky Tickytav. Uh, again, the cartoon just wrecked it. And then his poetry, he has one of the most well-loved and one of the most respected poems in the world called If. Um, he's been done, in my opinion, a great disservice uh by by modern entertainment. it it would be well worth for you to explore and get to know Rugger Kipling if you have any interest in serious literature.

[00:11:23]Okay. Uh Great Short Stories of the World. Um again, I've had that book for a long time and I've gotten a lot out of it.

[00:11:32]Here is another book by Kipling.

[00:11:35]Somebody gave me one of these and I don't know where I picked the other one up. Long Fellow's Complete Poems.

[00:11:41]Probably my number one book.

[00:11:43]probably my number one book. Um, his his poetry and where he comes from is and his obviously his grasp of the English language and how to use language to put out feelings and and thoughts and things are speak to me more than than anybody else does. Okay. Uh, another Longfellow political works. Uh this is Tales of the Wayside End. Um fascinating.

[00:12:18]Um basically it's it's most of it's a super long poem. Uh and there are some men of all diff of many different walks of life and backgrounds that have met at a tavern or a wayside in and they're entertaining each other and they're telling each other stories. And it's a fascinating glimpse uh into how men of different religious beliefs, men of different history, men of different um views on things, how they can meet and share their side of things and entertain. Great book. Uh here is another long fellow complete poems. Um, my family, my mom and my sisters, they know my taste and stuff and when they find these antique uh books, uh, they pick them up for me. And so I've got several. This is um, this is another one of my Longfellow um, Where Elephants Walk by Albert Townson. Somebody got me that and I have not yet read that one. U, but it's on my list. I as we'll get to it down here. I have a a weakness. I have a great love um for Africa and for African stories in the Africa of the old days. Um I have here these books were a gift to me from um very dear friend of mine and so it's obviously Peterson Jordan Peterson's 12 rules for life uh and beyond order. When I started reading this, I was like, you know what in the world? You know, his his uh when he started out with this the the chapter on the um Oh, I see my mind just went blank. The crustaceians. Was it a lobster or a crab?

[00:14:22]Um, what is it here? I don't want to I don't want to speak out of turn.

[00:14:31]One of the crustations. Anyhow, I started going through that and I'll be honest with you, I was like, where in the world is he going? And when I got to the end of the chapter, I'm like, oh, okay. His conclusion, I accept his conclusion. he just took a totally different road than I would have there.

[00:14:52]Um, and and that's beneficial.

[00:14:57]That's beneficial to learn how other people, the path that they go through, the way their mind works, how you and another person start at point A and your destination is point B, but how you take two completely different paths to get there, but you both wind up at the same spot. Um, your conversations with people will be much more intelligent and much more amiiable if you learn to get out of the habit of just picking at and attacking their thought process instead of waiting to let them get to the end and draw you to their final conclusion. Now, in this day and age, it's hard to find anybody uh who can talk like that and who can actually begin at point A and take you all the way to point B and then clarify their thought. Um I haven't read the second one yet, Beyond Order. Haven't got to it. This book here is called Commando.

[00:16:05]Um and uh fascinating book. It's a it's a um it's a history on the Boore war and from the boar's side uh in South Africa.

[00:16:22]Fascinating book. I got that from a fellow in Alaska.

[00:16:27]I shouldn't I I shouldn't have that book. And if he ever comes across this and sees this video, um, I apologize that I still have the book and if you get in touch with me and give me an address, I'll send it back to you because books are precious.

[00:16:42]Um, but we were in the same circle and I went away on a trip and when I came back, he had left that circle and I never saw him again and wanted to give that book back. Don't want to be a book thief. Okay? If you're going to steal something, um, don't steal somebody's book. Okay? Uh and then here I have three books that I have read so many times that I absolutely love. Uh and they're by Peter Hathway Capstick.

[00:17:07]There's Death in the Silent Places, Death on the Dark Continent, Death in the Long Grass. These are all stories uh about a professional uh hunting guide in Africa uh years ago.

[00:17:18]I think like in the 1950s, 1960s back in there. Um the stories themselves are fascinating but his writing style is uh speaks to me u more than any modern writer today and a modernist I mean n 1950s he's dead now is a long time ago but for me I love the stories and I love the way he writes. Um and then I've got Buck Brandman's Groundwork. It's a horse training book and I don't know what this one is. What is this? I've got Washington's farewell address to the people of the United States. If you consider yourself a patriot, an American, and a student of the truth in history, I strongly recommend that uh it's just a little it's just it they literally have transcribed out his speech, his farewell address. Uh and it's incredibly beneficial to read it. We come back here. Somebody gave me this book, The American Cowboy by Will James. Uh, every cowboy, every real cowboy and every real student of the West knows who Will James is. Um, Hackimore Rangeman, uh, if you're into horsemanship, this is one of those books written around the the early 1900s, uh, talking about, um, using the Hackamore to train horses.

[00:18:48]It's one of those when I first read it, I was like, I have no idea what he's talking about. Uh, I don't get this at all. And but the third time through it, the pieces started coming into place and the light started coming on. He's got things in there that are horse training from the old days that I'm like, well, that doesn't really fit me and doesn't really apply today.

[00:19:11]U, but it's an extremely valuable book.

[00:19:15]True Unity by Tom Dorance.

[00:19:18]Um, another uh natural horsemanship, if you will. Some people kind of reject that term these days. Uh, book on understanding uh the way horses really are. Uh, Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail by Theodore Roosevelt. I am a huge fan of Roosevelt and I've got other books in here by Roosevelt. Um, if you don't know anything about Roosevelt, except for San Juan Hill, uh, Roosevelt was born in a very wealthy family, but he was a very sickly child.

[00:19:57]Um, he was weak and he was sickly and he was nearsighted and he and he was raised uh, in money. He was raised in um privilege and but he decided that wasn't acceptable. And so he went out west, bought a ranch in North Dakota or Nebraska, one or the other. Uh and uh and cowboyed, become very fit, became very strong. uh eventually became the president after he commanded uh during the the Cuban uh the war in Cuba. And then when he retired and and during during those years he went out west, a lot of horseback, a lot of long trips, a lot of hunting, a lot of time in the outdoors. I didn't look this up. I could be wrong about this, but I think it was Roosevelt who as president set aside the first national park.

[00:21:00]Uh, Yellowstone, I think that's but I did I didn't look it up to verify in my mind, so I could be totally wrong. Don't flame me if I'm wrong on that. Uh, a tremendous outdoorsman. And then then he went and explored Africa when all other men would have been retired.

[00:21:20]Um, and I just I have a tremendous amount of respect for Roosevelt and I identify with him in a lot of ways. Um, I've got a collection down here um of uh A Tour on the Plains by Washington Irving. Uh very very I've read that book two or three times. Highly recommend that book.

[00:21:47]um and is is Washington Irving literally took a tour uh across the plains and he and he writes about it and it's fascinating. Um Uncle Dick Wooten, it's a story about one of the first uh an old-timer out west and I believe he um he started a like a big uh one of the first dude ranches out west. The log of a cowboy.

[00:22:15]If you want to know what cowboying was really like as opposed to what Hollywood says back in the day, this is not a biography.

[00:22:26]Uh, it's by Andy Adams, Log of a Cowboy.

[00:22:29]Um, but it is the most, if we want to say it's fictional.

[00:22:37]Um, but it is the most realistic, real life, uh, downto-earth depiction of what driving a herd of cattle was over months and on the trail back then was really like and what they dealt with. Uh, the vigilantes of Montana. It's another book on the history of a very rough time in Montana when there were a lot of rustlers and a lot of outlaws and stuff and and uh people got together and formed a vigilante group and very bloody, very violent, very difficult time. But there is a lot of societal uh truth and understanding uh in that book. African Game Trails by Roosevelt. Another Roosevelt book.

[00:23:26]One of my sisters just gave me this book. It's Floodgate by Alistister Mlan.

[00:23:30]Uh I think she remembered they picked it up somewhere when I was a kid. I used to read a lot of Alistister Mlan. Um Walden by Theorough.

[00:23:42]I had never read this book before and I just started reading it last week and this is one of those books that I would use to illustrate critical thought while reading. Um my first um my first thoughts as I started reading this book is I don't like this guy. Not that I don't like his reading, his writing, uh, but just his personality that came across is I I have met so many young people like him. I think he was 30. He says in the beginning of this when he wrote this book, 29 or 30, and I didn't like him. Um, he he was so full of himself. And at 30, he knew all the answers to everything and he knew all the ills of the world. But as I I read him looking back at almost 60. Um, and I need to start I need to read his later works to see if he grew and matured any u, but there's good stuff in there. Okay, there is good stuff in there. But again, it's it's uh it's something that you need to read with critical thought. Uh my next book is a collection of Plato uh Epictitus and Marcus Aurelius.

[00:25:01]Been reading Epictitus out of here. I had read that when I was a lot younger and it's another book that as I'm reading I'm like that is a good concept.

[00:25:13]That is a good thought. That would really help maintain a man's peace. And then I would read the next one and I'm like that could get somebody in trouble today if they tried to apply that today.

[00:25:26]Um, and but it's I recommend you read it.

[00:25:35]There are some dingbats on here. I said once before when I was talking about books, I said the brain is a muscle and the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. Well, there's always wags and smart elks and people who just got to be heard and they just got to say something. Several got on there and said, "Well, the brain technically actually is not a muscle." Shut up.

[00:25:56]Obviously, you're not a reader. I know anatomically the brain is not a muscle.

[00:26:02]All right. It's a metaphor, you ding bat. Okay. The brain is like a muscle if that makes you feel better. Okay. The more you read and the more you read difficult stuff, the more you read stuff that you have to chew on and you have to sort through and things that that you have to meditate on and you have to work out and maybe you'll read a line and you'll be like, "What did they say there?" Because the word structure is different.

[00:26:32]The more you exercise your intellect, the more you exercise your brain and uh the more intelligent you can become, the smarter, the more understanding, the wiser. Um but the old adage is true, garbage in, garbage out. And if all you do is read um easy fluff and novels, uh you never really exercise. You need to read deep sometimes. All right.

[00:27:02]Sometimes you you all you want for a meal is maybe you just want for breakfast you just want a pop-tart and a glass of chocolate milk. Okay. Um but you can't live on that. You'll not get strong. You'll not be healthy. You'll not be able to work. You need uh bacon and eggs. You need steak and eggs. Okay?

[00:27:26]You need you need good strong meals with lots of protein and lots of substance to it. You can't live on Pop-Tarts and chocolate milk. Okay. Reading is the same way. Okay. I don't really know. Oh, so selections from Walden by Thoros. Somebody's taken and gone through and pulled selections out.

[00:27:49]Uh the quotable cowboy. I don't know.

[00:27:52]Somebody gave me that book. It's just got a lot of different cowboy western quotes in it. Um, what we got here?

[00:28:01]The diary of a dude wrangler. Uh, if you're from R come through Wrangler school, you've been through here. If you want to get into that life, there there's a lot there's a lot of nuggets in there. I recommend you read that. Uh, here's another Sunzu, the art of war.

[00:28:19]And of course, what collection of books is complete without a copy of Old Yeller by Fred Gibson? I got to have Old Yeller.

[00:28:29]Um, what do we have here?

[00:28:33]Oh, A Book Lovers Holidays in the Open.

[00:28:36]Another book by Roosevelt. Um, he is taking different trips out west. Some of them just long rides, some of it hunting, some of it visiting. And he he writes about it. And uh very very good book.

[00:28:52]This book here is it says the life sayings and words of Jesus. Now what this book is is Thomas Jefferson did this he put this together.

[00:29:06]Uh this edition I don't know where I picked this up.

[00:29:11]this edition.

[00:29:14]Um, let's see.

[00:29:17]It says, "Selected and arranged by Thomas Jefferson, father of democracy and writer of the Declaration of Independence."

[00:29:25]Um, I'm looking for a date.

[00:29:30]Oh, copyright 1940 uh was when it was the copyright was renewed. He did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ.

[00:29:38]He did not believe in the supernatural.

[00:29:40]He did not believe in any of the miracles. He he believed Jesus was a good man and his teachings were worthwhile. So what he did was he took the gospels and went through it and cut out everything that he didn't believe uh and put the rest of it together to say this is a good man. These are his good words and I reject everything else.

[00:30:01]And I keep it for the novelty of it.

[00:30:03]Okay. Uh it it's just the CS Lewis's trilmma very much comes into to play with overintelligent men like this who who uh CS Lewis said that uh Jesus was either a liar or he was a lunatic or he was Lord because he said uh that he was divine.

[00:30:36]He called himself the son of God. He said, "No man cometh to the father but by me." He said, "I am the door uh the truth and the life." Uh he said, "I will rise again one day. I will rise from the dead." Now, he either lied.

[00:30:52]None of that was true. He was just the biggest charlatan in existence.

[00:30:58]Or he was a lunatic. He actually believed it. However false it may have been or he actually was Lord and it actually did happen. Nobody with any you can't say he was just a good man.

[00:31:14]Okay. So was Thomas Jefferson brilliant? Yes he was. Um and is a brilliant man always wise?

[00:31:26]No they are not. Okay. So again, critical thinking, very important. We're getting down to the end of what's on on this shelf here. What do I have here?

[00:31:37]Very, very old book. Another Longfellow um poetry. Uh I think my mom picked that up at an antique shop and gave it to me.

[00:31:49]And what do we have? Oh, one of the few books like this that I have, uh, John Eldridge, Wild at Heart.

[00:31:59]Um, if if you're a man, a modern man, and your Christianity is of the type that is so prevalent today, it is weak. It is sanitized. It is watered down. Um, that book I do recommend.

[00:32:19]I do recommend that book. Um, and uh, so do some research on it. I've got uh, Don, which is small book by Zayn Gray. I used to have a whole collection of Zane Gay books and I I gave them to uh, one of my daughters uh, for her birthday.

[00:32:42]What is this one here? I haven't read this one yet. This is another one one my family got me.

[00:32:49]Uh, let's see here.

[00:32:52]Tales of the Alra by Washington Irving.

[00:32:58]There are some books of Washington Irving that I thoroughly love and there are some that that are just really hard read. I think this is one here. My mom picked this one up at an antique store.

[00:33:11]Um, I think this is uh let's see.

[00:33:21]This book was Oh, this is um Quinton Derward by Sir Walter Scott. And that book was so much work to read. I finally put it down. I'm like, man, I'm not up to this today. And uh I do like a lot of Irving stuff. And then the last one here is golden song of treasures and lyrics.

[00:33:42]And uh selected from the best songs and lyrical poems in the English language and arranged with notes by Francis T. Paul great. U very old very old book. uh I have a weakness uh for old books, especially poetry and stuff. So, anyhow, that's some of the books that I have in here and some of my some of my uh more books that have affected me and books that have a lot of weight on my thought process and how I think and how I communicate and how how I walk through this world. Okay. Um, and I would love if more people just began their journey, just began the journey of reading, reading good stuff, reading hard stuff.

[00:34:40]Um, and uh, so anyhow, I had a lot of requests to share that with you and uh, so I have um, and I'd like to hear from you any of these particular books that mean something to you that you're familiar with. uh any any books that have uh made a big impact on your life or books that you have been um looking at and saying, you know what, I'm very interested in in exploring that author and those books. Um share it with us in the comments, okay? And then we can all uh we can all grow from there. And of course on top of this shelf is my pipe collection. Part of it. Part of it's in that pipe cabinet up there. We just move on up. There's the tobacos. Maybe one day I'll do a video and just go through my whole pipe collection and and the tobacco I got. We'll see. But anyhow, I hope it was interesting to you and I hope somebody picked a little something up. Now I'm going to turn this video off and see if I can get up off this floor.

[00:35:51]about making a complete groaning mess of myself. And but uh be logical, be reasonable, be safe, have fun, and be well read. We'll catch you guys next time.