This evening, my family and I went to dinner at the new Ramstein Mall. While waiting on Monica and the girls to finish an errand, Will and I roamed the AAFES book store. We had no objective except to slowly pass the time before Will got restless. The books gave us something to talk about.
We weaved our way through the aisles, from non-fiction to fiction, and from crafts to children’s books. We finally made it to the Westerns.
There were the cowboy books—Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey. I grew up loving these books, actually. Through high school and college, I chose these when I had the chance. I always enjoy looking at these books when I go to a book store. Tonight, there are some new authors I’ve never heard of—but they had a cowboy on the cover. Stories of the Old West.
Except one.
The was one book a little out of place. It was titled, “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Yes, that one. Written by the German Author Erich Maria Remarque and burned by the Nazi’s. Wikipedia describes the plot this way:
The book describes the German soldiers’ extreme physical and mental duress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front.
I definitely would recommend the book, but just because there is the word “Western” in the title doesn’t make it a book about cowboys.