What a great idea, Amanda!
Lonesome Dove is one of my favorite books. I've read it several times (and I've seen the mini-series more than once, also), but it's been a few years and I'd love to do another re-read, with an eye toward BBM connections. I'm sure there are all kinds of details I've forgotten. As you point out, it's a large book.
I've read all of the books in the Lonesome Dove series, but I think the first one remains my favorite. I believe Streets of Laredo is the final installment.
By way of warning, there was a sequel to the mini-series made (Return to Lonesome Dove), but it was done without McMurty's blessing and he was not pleased to put it mildly. I read something once where he referred to it as "spurious." I never had any interest in watching it.
Marie
This is great Marie!! I'd love to hear your opinions about the BBM/LD connections as someone who has a great deal of knowledge about LD (the book and mini-series) as well as his other books and, of course, BBM too.
For me, so far, some of the similarities (or points of comparison) are really specific... like the lines ("talks a blue streak" or "not the marrying kind") that appear verbatum in both LD and BBM. And, then there are broader symbolic things that are very familiar from our BBM talks... the moon, bears, drowning...
And, then the sweeping things like the relationships between men.
Of course, there are lots of differences too. And, again, the shift in cowboy culture that occured in only about 100 years is really fascinating to me. It's interesting to see McMurtry applying some of the same concepts to such different time periods, which of course, alters the meaning of some of those concepts.
But, as I mentioned before, I'm only about 300 pages into it and haven't seen the mini series. So, my reactions are still formulating.