I'd avoid the rest of the books in the series.

I'm a huge fan of the Lonesome Dove series, but I always had a hard time figuring out how the excessive violence played into what I thought that McMurtry was trying to convey.
The other books in the series are considerably more bloody and depressing, and it wasn't until I read an interview with McMurtry (which I haven't been able to find online in the past few decades) saying that the series was meant to be read as a comedy that I really got it.

The Old West wasn't really that way. Even if you look at the core group of Lonesome Dove, it doesn't make sense. Two female characters out of 30 or so main characters? Rewriting history whenever it suits his purpose? Call's insanity when faced with situations that he couldn't handle (beating up bystanders, going out of his way to ignore Newt), bad "Indians". etc. etc.

I think that the Streets of Laredo is a "better" book (even though Lonesome Dove is always in my top 5 novels that I would recommend). Streets goes into more detail about how the main characters try and live their lives, and the bonds that they form with each other.

Great series, great author- I think that there are many ways to interpret the books.