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Books: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Larry Mcmurtry
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $13.25
You Save: $10.75 (45%)
New (45) Used (13) from $13.15
Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 4492
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
ASIN: 1416583343
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: 100% BRAND NEW!
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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 16 more reviews...
 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.
He loves books October 1, 2008
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.
 "Books" September 9, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
 Book collectors diary September 1, 2008
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.
 A Book for Book Lovers August 29, 2008
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."
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