Books: A Memoir | 
| Author: Larry Mcmurtry
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy Used: $8.50
You Save: $15.50 (65%)
New (44) Used (34) Collectible (3) from $8.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 24406
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st Simon & Schuster Hardcover Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 1416583343
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781416583349
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: VG TO NEAR NEW BCE
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, July 2008: It wasn't enough for Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry to become one of the most prolific, bestselling, and beloved of American writers. Besides writing nearly forty books, including the Pultizer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove, he has emerged as one this nation's greatest bookmen. In Books: A Memoir, McMurtry shares with readers his lifelong passion and dogged pursuit of books. In short, gem-like chapters, he paints a fascinating picture of the landscape of American book culture and book selling over a 50-year period. The story is as dusty, musty and crusty as any of McMurtry's fictionalized Westerns, and filled with characters who seem like they stepped out of central casting. Whether you love McMurtry, books, bookstores or a combination thereof, you'll find something to love in Books: A Memoir. Settle in with a cuppa coffee and let McMurtry kindle your passion for physical books. --Lauren Nemroff
Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Big disappointment; bigger waste of time November 29, 2008
McMurtry's works are erratically brilliant, sometimes downright bad, but this is a huge disappointment. Sloppy, badly in need of an editor (how many Bostwana "late" references do we need?), way too random and dropping names so frequently that we either don't know or don't care about...the whole effect is "who cares?" And I happen to love books, frequent second hand booksellers and have some familiarity with the turf described.To say nothing of being -- more times than not -- a fan of McMurtry's. But this book is hardly a memoir and, frankly, if not for the author's fame, I seriously doubt this would have ever been published. It's that big a waste of time.
 Devoured book, ignored my kids November 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In our house the greatest tribute you can give a book is that, while reading it, you ignore everything and everyone around you, including all offspring. I brought McMurtry's book about books up to my daughter's room where I was supposed to "tuck her in." I promptly sat down and began reading. An hour later said daughter asks if we're ever going to turn out the light. There's school tomorrow. Got a big day, dad. That's how wonderful and entertaining BOOKS is. Great people, great anecdotes--read Chapter 98, which is all of a half-page long, for an example. One of the funniest punch lines I've read (or heard) this year. If you love books, book selling or book buying, sprint, don't run to your nearest Amazon check out button and press. Better yet, dash over to your favorite bookstore--if you can find one.
A Life in the Company of Books November 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Books: A Memoir, by Larry McMurtry, is a book that may not appeal to a lot of people, maybe not even to hard-core McMurtry fans. However, I found it highly entertaining and enjoyable.
McMurtry has penned a book detailing his life with books; as a buyer and seller of used, rare, and antique books and as a book lover. His life with books started when he was the recipient of a wonderful gift from his cousin. On his way to enlist in World War II, Larry's cousin stopped by their house, and gave him a box of 19 books. Books, McMurtry tells you, that changed his life. Prior to those books, he lived a life of realism and immediacy. He had no thoughts outside of his current surroundings. Those books, standard adventure stories of the 1930's, opened his eyes to a vast, untapped world. One where he could go anywhere, see anything, live through the eyes of the hero's and authors. And since the age of six or seven, he hasn't stopped reading.
Books: A Memoir has plenty of book selling/buying anecdotes, some of which may not appeal to everyone. McMurtry tells of books that he held and sold that were eventually sold for much more than he asked. He also drops plenty of insider names in the book selling business. While I certainly am not familiar with those circles, those stories added to the overall enjoyment of the book. Through those incidents, you could see how those people and incidents have added to his overall enjoyment of books. As you read this, you will come to have a better appreciation of McMurtry, the man, his life's work, and for books. Along the way, you will be exposed to his thoughts concerning libraries, computers, iPods, and his personal library (20,000 books, plus or minus). If you are a reader, you can probably relate to his love of books:
"Very quickly, once I had my nineteen books, I realized that reading was probably the cheapest and most stable pleasure of life. Sometimes books excite me, sometimes they sustain me, but rarely do they disappoint me--as books, that is, if not necessarily the poetry, history, or fiction that they contain."
This is quite a memoir from a man whose life has been spent in the company of books.
McMurtry strikes again! October 13, 2008
Larry McMurtry will steal the heart of any book lover with his newest, Books: A Memoir. The collecting and selling of rare books is seldom brought to our attention. It is amazing and lucrative. McMurtry's knowledge of the movers and shakers and history of the industry is impressive. I would love to visit his bookstore/library!
A Great Book for Bibliophiles October 6, 2008
McMurtry provides an interesting peek into the life of a "bookman", a person who collects and deals in valuable books. He describes his beginnings in a bookless household and how he developed a love for reading and writing, and how he moved into the world of book dealing. Bookmen are a unique lot and one wonders how they manage to make a good living consistently, although one can see how the more established bookshops would be able to do this. Nevertheless, McMurtry and his colleagues do manage, for the most part, to make a living, although clearly McMurtry's must be vastly supplemented from royalties from his own books and his successful screenwriting career (he doesn't state this, and I am assuming it, but I think it makes sense).
There are fascinating stories about individual bookmen and book collectors, the latter mostly coming from moneyed backgrounds. They're the ones who pay thousands of dollars for rare books signed by authors. This milieu at times makes the book read like a literary version of the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
For those of us who are bibliophiles, books like these are like literary aphrodisiacs, wetting the appetite to read more, to acquire more books and to learn more about books themselves, and to imagine owning a vast library like McMurtry's (28,000 books). The photo on the dust jacket - bookshelves filled with books - is a delectable appetizer to the main dish of the book itself.
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