Craig Johnson Wants to Give Longmire Fans the ‘Best 3 Minutes’ He Can

How do you organize your books?

Like everything in my life, it’s kind of random. I’ve got reading stations all over the ranch, and I’m pretty sure I’m the only Wyoming rancher with a sun-faded copy of “The Dancing Wu Li Masters” sliding around on the dashboard of his truck.

Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).

Sitting with my wife, Judy, in our 1896 cabin in the Bighorn Mountains during a snowstorm, with a fire burning, discovering an author I’ve never read before.

What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of?

“Doctor Dogbody’s Leg,” by James Norman Hall, one half of the duo that brought us the 1932 novel “Mutiny on the Bounty.” It’s the story of a peg-legged Royal Navy surgeon who enters a tavern in Portsmouth each night regaling the denizens with the implausible tale of how he lost his leg, the twist being it’s a different story every night.

What books are on your night stand?

I was lucky enough to get a prepublication copy of Willy Vlautin’s “The Horse.” I’ve been a big fan of his since running into him at a literary festival in Paris where I thought, “There’s a guy who looks even more painfully American than I do.” Elizabeth Crook’s “The Madstone” is next on deck, and then you’ve caught me at a rereading period with “Woman of Light,” by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, which is truly transcendent. I returned to “Rules of Civility,” by Amor Towles, after reading “Table for Two”; he’s so charming, entertaining and elegant you want to hit him in the head with a rock.

Who’s the second-best Wyoming writer (or writer on Wyoming)?

I’m a big Mark Spragg fan. He’s a very unassuming and humble guy, but his voice is nothing short of poetically epic.

What impact did seeing Walt Longmire onscreen have on your continuing to write the character?

Not much, in that I’d been writing the novels for seven years before Warner Bros. knocked on the door and most of the characters in my novels are drawn from people I know.