I grew up in Denver, and every January I still get a hankering to pull on a pair of cowboy boots, throw on a jean jacket and head to the National Western Stock Show. For a few hours, I can mingle with the ranchers, farmers, cowboys and cowgirls in a unique celebration of our shared Western heritage. Even if you don't go, here are some titles to put you in a Stock Show frame of mind.

There's nothing better for getting in the mood than a little cowboy music -- not country western, but the authentic, "tumbling tumbleweed" stuff. While the Riders in the Sky musicians are not real cowboys, they can fiddle and yodel with the best of them. Some CDs to try include The Cowboy Way, Best of the West, and Always Drink Upstream of the Herd.

When you think of cowboys, poetry may not be the first thing that comes to mind. According to the book Cowboy Poets and Cowboy Poetry by David Stanley and Elaine Thatcher, however, "cowboys have been creating and reciting poetry since the 1870s." For an introduction to cowboy poetry, try any of Baxter Black's books, or one of the following anthologies: The Big Roundup by Margo Metegrano; Riding the Northern Range by Ted Stone or Cowboy Poetry Matters by Robert McDowell.

Cowboy poet and author Laurie Wagner Buyer’s most recent book, Spring's Edge: A Ranch Wife's Chronicles, is a memoir about one season on the Colorado cattle ranch she used to call home. It's a tough six months-cattle prices are down and taxes are up, the weather is horrible, her father is diagnosed with cancer and her marriage is on the skids. But through it all, she manages to find and write about the beauty of a life lived close to the land.

Another poet turned prose writer is James Galvin. His book, The Meadow, still reads like poetry, however. It's not a novel in the typical sense; it's more a series of linked vignettes or prose poems about a meadow on the Colorado/Wyoming border and the people who lived there. One reviewer compared the book to "leafing through an album of old photographs." The Meadow is the 2009 selection for Golden Reads.

There's a lot of controversy these days about the environmental impacts of ranching and cattle grazing, particularly on public lands. Welfare Ranching, edited by George Wuerthner and Mollie Matteson, takes a look at the darker side of the controversy. There is good news, however. Revolution on the Range by Courtney White and The New Ranch Handbook by Nathan Freeman Sayre document the ways ranchers are working alongside conservationists to reduce and repair the damage done to our Western rangelands. Both books are hopeful reading for anyone concerned with sustainable agriculture.

Some Additional titles:
Bitterbrush Country by Diane Josephy Peavey
Close Range; Bad Dirt and Fine Just the Way It Is by Annie Proulx
The Cowboy Way: Seasons of a Montana Ranch by David McCumber
In Open Spaces by Russell Rowland
West of Last Chance by Kent Haruf
Where Rivers Change Direction by Mark Spragg
Windbreak: A Woman Rancher on the Northern Plains by Linda Hasselstrom

You can find these movies and many more at any Jefferson County Public Library location. Talk to your librarian for more recommendations.