Books: A Memoir
by: Larry McMurtry
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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.
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
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- "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 ... Read More
Rating: 
- 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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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!
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
- "A room without books is like a body without a soul" CiceroI 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 ... Read More
- A Good Yarn That Needed More SpinningWhen 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 ... Read More
- Books; A Memoir Larry McMurtryThis 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 & BookmanI 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 ... Read More
- A Book Collector Who Happens to Write for a LivingCounting 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 ... Read More
