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Books: A Memoir

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Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster

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In a prolific life of singular literary achievement, Larry McMurtry has succeeded in a variety of genres: in coming-of-age novels like The Last Picture Show; in collections of essays like In a Narrow Grave; and in the reinvention of the Western on a grand scale in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove. Now, in Books: A Memoir, McMurtry writes about his endless passion for books: as a boy growing up in a largely "bookless" world; as a young man devouring the vastness of literature with astonishing energy; as a fledgling writer and family man; and above all, as one of America's most prominent bookmen. He takes us on his journey to becoming an astute, adventurous book scout and collector who would eventually open stores of rare and collectible editions in Georgetown, Houston, and finally, in his previously "bookless" hometown of Archer City, Texas.

In this work of extraordinary charm, grace, and good humor, McMurtry recounts his life as both a reader and a writer, how the countless books he has read worked to form his literary tastes, while giving us a lively look at the eccentrics who collect, sell, or simply lust after rare volumes. Books: A Memoir is like the best kind of diary -- full of McMurtry's wonderful anecdotes, amazing characters, engaging gossip, and shrewd observations about authors, book people, literature, and the author himself. At once chatty, revealing, and deeply satisfying, Books is, like McMurtry, erudite, life loving, and filled with excellent stories. It is a book to be savored and enjoyed again and again.


PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS:

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781416583349
ISBN: 1416583343
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: 2008-07-08
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster


ACCESSORIES:

• Folly and Glory: A Novel (The Berrybender Narratives)
• Moving On: A Novel
• Cadillac Jack : A Novel


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• The Library at Night
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel
• How Fiction Works
• Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen : Reflections on Sixty and Beyond
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Random House Reader's Circle)


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

"A room without books is like a body without a soul" Cicero -
I don't know how come it took me so long to find this new book by McMurtry;but when I did,it took me less than 5 seconds to decide that I had to have it.
Books about books is my favourite genre when it comes to books.Over the years,I have added a fair number of them to my personal library and written reviews on several of them .
This memoir by McMurtry is excellent and will no doubt become a classic for this type of book.His other book,"Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen";falls into this genre;but this book really outshines them it.When one thinks about "books about books" ;one thinks about what readers have to say about books,what writers have to say about books,collections of books,buyers of books,booksellers and bookstores,libraries ,publishers and editors,characters of every drscription,and just about anything that can be involved in the world of Bibliomania. and Bibliophiles and every other noun beginning with Biblio...
Tha thing that is different with this book is that he has evolved into not only one or two of these these people or afflictions;but a combination of all of them .Author,Reader,Bookseller,Collector ,all in one and I can't think of any other person who has excelled at them all in the way McMurtry has.If anyone knows someone who has,by all means tell us.
In this book, McMurtry gives us the benefit of his insight and experience in all there areas which are to great interest to all book lovers.
McMurtry's lifelong love has been the little East Texas town of Archer City,Texas ,and we all came to know it from his book and movie "The Last Picture Show".He tells us how ,for a couple of reasons,he has been making this a "book town" and has bought several buildings,and moved his stock and collection there.He is well on his way to making it a mecca for all book lovers.
While most of us are book buyers and readers is is very enlightning to see the book business from the book buyers and sellers viewpoint.
The one thing that surprised me in this book is that McMurtry rated his own books,not something we often see from writers.I was most surprised that he rated "Cadillac Jack" as one of his lesser accomplishments since it was the first book of his that I read,and I enjoyed it so much that it is still my favorite of his ,having read them all.But to each his own.
After reading this book,I was left with the feeling that McMurtry has become somewhat tired of writing novels and we may not see many more from him.I hope I am wrong;but he has already given us much, and if he chooses to use his remaining days doing other things ;he is certainly deserving of any choice he makes.
I wish him all the best with Archer City and hope one day to get here.Now that he has wet our appetite with this "book about books";I hope he does decide to write more about his experiences and people he has met along the way in his book world.He must have a million tales to tell,and the research has already beed done.
If this is the first "book about books that you have read,let me recommend a couple of others.

"The Library at Night" by Alberto Manguel -- see my review December
3,2007

"Book Row" by Marvin Mondlin and Roy Meador--see my review February
15,2009

"The Book on the Bookshelf" byHenry Petroski--see my review January
31,2009

"At Home With Books"--by Estelle Ellis--see my review November 6,2003




You are the same today,
That you will be five years from now,
Except for two things;

The people you meet
and
The books you read


Books to the ceiling.
Books to the sky.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I'll have a long beard,
by the time I read them.

A Good Yarn That Needed More Spinning -
When I picked up this book, I thought it was going to be a narrative about books that had influenced Larry Mc Murtry's life and writing. Chapter One proved me correct. But then Books evolves into a story about Mc Murtry's life as an antiquarian bookseller. The yarn was intriguing and entertaining, but many might find it esoteric.

Books starts out very strong with Mc Murtry attempting to explain how he became obsessed with books though he grew up on a ranch in Texas where culture took a back seat to chickens. The book continues with an entertaining narrative about being a bookseller in Georgetown. But the last third of the book did not seem as developed. Some of the chapters are less than a page long and the details wane. I often felt like there was more Mc Murtry could tell us but isn't because he doesn't like to gossip. Still, McMurtry's descriptions of his book selling venue in Archer City are strong enough to inspire me to drive there on my vacation this year. My curiosity is piqued!

A good yarn told by a bibliophile, but not as interesting as A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books which describes the crazed minds of book collectors without being held back by loyalty and manners.

Books; A Memoir Larry McMurtry -
This is indeed a memoir I have waited for! Anyone enjoying the writing of Larry McMurtry will enjoy reading 'Books...' . Here we learn a lot about his life and especially about his business of collecting and selling rare and out-of-print books.

Obviously I enjoyed this book a lot, and will read it some more. I advise others to do the same. Learn how and why Mr. McMurtry began to write at all, and the early obstacles to his chosen profession!

Of Books & Bookman -
I might have said I was crazy to pick up a book all about books and "bookman", but I do love books and the cover photo of a library is alluring. I found McMurty's book to be great fun, much like his book "Roads". I found myself drawn into this story about "bookman" and the process of buying and selling of personal libraries and collections. And so I had to keep going to the next chapter.

To try to explain why this book is hard to put down would be time consuming, so suffice it to say that if you're a lover of books, you'll probably enjoy this memoir. And like "Roads" there are a rich set of book references that you might have never known about and when you start reading those, you can't imagine having missed them.

Great fun.

A Book Collector Who Happens to Write for a Living -
Counting the two books that Larry McMurtry coauthored with Diana Ossana, "Books: A Memoir" is his forty-first book. I have read all but a handful of them (and will get around to those eventually) and was a regular at Booked Up, McMurtry's antiquarian bookstore during the relatively short period it had a Houston address. I only ran into McMurtry once in all my visits to Booked Up and, on that occasion, he was involved in what seemed to me to be a detailed business discussion with the store's manager so I decided not to bother him. I have long regretted that missed opportunity to talk books with a bookman of McMurtry's experience, so I see "Books: A Memoir" as the next best thing to a sit-down with him. In fact, "Books" is written in such a rambling conversational, style that I imagine it to be closely akin to what speaking to him would actually be like.

The 109 chapters of "Books" cover McMurtry's love of books from his boyhood to the present day, each chapter being a little snippet of information regarding how he became the bookman he is today. It is almost a stream-of-consciousness format, with some names and references occurring in more than one chapter and some turns of phrase being used so many times that they become McMurtry catch phrases. Some would suggest that McMurtry needed a better editor for the book; I say that it is exactly that kind of thing that makes the book seem so much like an actual conversation with the man.

The biggest surprise to me is that McMurtry seems prouder of, and happier with, his success at creating several great antiquarian bookstores and a huge personal book collection than he is of all of the success and awards coming from the books he himself has written. That tells more about him than anything else in his story - he is primarily a book lover. That he is able to make his living by writing books is, for him, the wonderful bonus that allows him to indulge his first love, acquiring fine books written by others.

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