Books: A Memoir

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.

I remember a foreword to one of McMurtry's book that said to the effect that he regretted a life spent reading and rereading his own writing when it could have been better spent reading something like Shakespeare.

Perhaps it was the forward to "Cadillac Jack," A book of his I thoroughly enjoyed and he also badmouths in his memoir, "Books."

McMurtry does love books. He loves horsetrading them. And he loves the other book traders he has encountered over the years. That is what this book is about.

It may not be for everyone, but I sure enjoyed it.

Now and then, you read a book and wonder, why was it published? Suprisingly, "Books" is one the titles you wonder why it became a book. Yes, it would have been a few nice pieces in a book collector/trade magazine, but as published it is annnoying. What should be single pages are stretched into two pages by S&S to "fluff" the size. The annoying decision by the author and publisher to publish the volume is compounded by an annoying publisher presentation; not fun. I would only recommend this to hard core McMurtry collectors.

My favorite book by an American author is Lonesome Dove. The other books in that series are also wonderful.

"Books" is not fiction but a look at the author's love of books and collecting books. This may be of more interest to the people with similar interests.

Larry McMurtry's "Books" is very focused on his career as a Bookman, and, as he intended, gives little insight into his life other than as related to this part of his profession. For lover's of books it is a delightful, fast read. I enjoyed finding out about this part of Larry McMurtry's thinking and the fascinating details of "Bookmanship."