A Million to One Odds (Times Five): True Stories of Surviving Life as a Modern Day Cowboy with Humor Intact [Paperback]

Bob Kinford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

More of Bob's "cun-cussin" induced stories from his life as a working cowboy. Young or old, cowboy or a city slicker wannabe you won't be able to keep yourself from laughing at these stories!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bob Kinford has spent his life traveling around the west working on ranches and training horses. his unique brand of humor will have you laughing and feeling the pain of modern day cowboy life (at the same time!)

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Foreword
By Lee Pitts

Bob Kinford is an oxymoron. No, I am not making a judgment on Bob mental capacity. I’m told an oxymoron is a combination of contradictory words like dry lake. Bob is a cowboy writer, two words seldom seen together in the same sentence. Bob’s publishing empire, Too Lazy For You Livestock and Literary Company, is also an oxymoron and may be the only for-profit enterprise in America combining literature and cows. Writing and riding is a rare combination.

Whereas cowboying is mostly physical, writing is occasionally mental. Put a cowboy afoot and he gets lost faster than a day-old calf in a roundup. To write you must read and it has been my experience that most cowboys read only when forced to in the powder room. Put a cowboy in front of a computer screen and he starts quivering and his eyes get as big as saucers. Sure, any cowboy worth his buckle and boots can tell a good story, but actually write it down? That’s another matter entirely. That’s why Bob Kinford is so unique. Normally cowboys have better things to do than jot down a story after coming in from a grueling day. Not only do they not have the time, most also lack the desire to put on paper what they’re thinking. The fact that Bob took the time to commit all these great stories to print says a lot about his social life, or lack of one.

Bob says he writes about true lies: Yet another oxymoron. But anyone who has ever looked at the back end of a cow knows what Bob means. The stories in the pages that follow have to be true because nobody could make up what Bob calls the miscomBOBulations in this book. They are stories inspired by an original event but are made funnier by Bob's storytelling ability. I first met Bob at a bull sale in Yerington, Nevada. Now, you really have to like cattle and cattle people to spend a Saturday at a bull sale in Yerington. We hit it off immediately and not just because we're in the same

line of work. We both told each other a few lies and promised to swap our latest books in the mail. I was a bit skeptical at first because, although he definitely looked the part of a cowboy and knew the right bureaucrats to cuss, Bob also knew about things like web pages, nouns and verbs. When I got Bob's first book, Cowboy Romance, I was happy for two reasons: It contained no cowboy poetry, a field that is rapidly being overrun by plumbers and pharmaceutical salesmen who wear cowboy hats with feathers in them and think that because they can rhyme democrat North Platte they are the second coming of Baxter Black.

Secondly, I could tell that Bob Kinford was the real deal and not an oxymoronic, original reproduction. He's a cowboy of the non-drugstore variety who writes about what he knows. He has ridden rank bulls, strung fence, calved heifers, worked for day wages and received at least part of his salary each month in beef. He's got the right letters after his name too: not PhD, MS or BS ,but initials like NM and NV, places he temporarily called home and lived in a state of cowboy. First time authors are often one-shotwonders because they use up all their good subject matter in their first book. I'm happy to report after reading this volume that Bob did not use up all his good stuff in his first outing. After the success of his first book Bob did not give up on the cowboy way of life to become an armchair pundit, nor did he

choose an easier lifestyle and spend the rest of his life indoors writing about how he remembered the cowboy life to be. No, Bob remained a cowboy because he knew his success as a writer was based on gathering fresh material. And this book is full of it. And I mean that in a kind way. Bob Kinford is what the bureaucrats he despises would call an endangered species. A one-of-a-kind cowboy who knows how to write. He ought to be preserved for posterity. With this book the cowboy part of him will be.

Product Details

• Paperback: 162 pages
• Publisher: 2lazy4U Livestock & Literary Co (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966089022
• ISBN-13: 978-0966089028
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,761,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars really cowboy humor, May 4, 2004

By 

Amber Baird (Ft. Collins CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Million to One Odds (Times Five): True Stories of Surviving Life as a Modern Day Cowboy with Humor Intact (Paperback)

this book is a must have for anyone who has ever worked as a cowboy or want to be one... as someone in the this line of work, it is great to hear that these things happen to other people.. everyone needs to be reminded to look at the humor in all things... this book is great at makings things seem better and for a good laugh... it also makes a great coffee table book to share with friends... i hope that you enjoy it as much as i did...