** spoiler alert ** 
 Cormac McCarthy is one of my all time favorite writers mainly because of The Road, which touched me on such a deep and profound level that to this day still resonates strongly. That was the first book I read by him so I have been looking forward to reading more of his work. Reading both No Country for Old Men and then this one back to back was quite an enjoyable experience, to live in Cormac's landscape for a whole week. This included re-watching the No Country film and I plan to watch the Matt Damon film All the Pretty Horses for the first time this weekend. At times during certain parts of the story I was unsure about whether or not I was really liking it and feeling that maybe this was only a 3 star book for me. But by the end after taking in the entire experience and thinking back upon it all, I decided it was worth four stars after all. Mostly because by the end of John's journey, when I took some time to truly reflect upon what he had gone through I realized it was a fascinating journey and one that actually did keep my interest throughout. I had remembered reading that McCarthy only wanted to write about stories that revolved around matters of life and death and that he felt these are how books should be. In this way, when I think of the story in that context of how John's journey did brush up against moments where life and death became the focus, those are the moments that I enjoyed the most.