Books: A Memoir (2008)

McMurtry offers some insights into his education and some interesting stories about buying and selling books, but unless you are very interested in either McMurtry, bookselling or books as physical objects, this memoir is too full of references to book scouts, book sellers and book stores McMurtry has known for me to give more than three stars. ( )

Larry McMurtry is known for his novels Terms of Endearment and his 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove, among many other things. But what people might not know about Larry McMurtry is he is also a rare-book scout. Owning many second hand bookstores called Booked Up, McMurtry is always on the hunt for good books. Book is a memoir of adventures as a book seller.

Let’s face it, I love a good book memoir so I thought I had to check this one out, but I’m a little disappointed. At times in this book it felt more like bragging than actual book scouting; I don’t really enjoy reading a whole lot of “I found a book that was worth hundreds of dollars and brought it for mere dollars”. There needed to be a bit more about his love for the books and less showing off to really make this book enjoyable.

I think it would be cool to be a book seller or scout and it was interesting to read about his journey as one. I did actually visit all the second hand book stores in search for gems so maybe this book did have an effect on me. The only difference was, gems for me are the books I really want to read and not books that would make me money. I also would have enjoyed some more about Larry McMurtry’s reading life as well amd the books he was passionate about or recommends, but this just wasn’t there.

I think this book just lacked passion overall; I felt like Larry McMurtry saw books as money makers and there was no love for them. It’s an interesting book but now I know what to look for in a book about books, I don’t think I would pick up another book like this; unless recommended to me. Book sellers or book scouts may get more out of this book but I have a feeling that most would probably share my opinion.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/02/24/book-review-books-a-memoir/ ( )

Fascinating story of the life of a libriphile or book-o-phile. Worth re-reading for book collection tips.
See Taste and Technique in Book-Collecting by John Carter.
See Clegg's dictionary of the world book trade ( )

I had fun reading this book! First it is Larry McMurtry; what more is to be said? Because this is a memoir, it is somewhat autobiographical, along with stories about other people. Second, it's a book about being a scout for a used bookstore and a little bit about selling used books. McMurtry tells stories about many people I've never heard of, but some of them are related to people I am familiar with, so the antecdotes are interesting. I had no idea how layered and complex the used books (antiquarian books) profession is. Slow maybe, but I didn't even consider the international component - mais bien sur! I was sad when this one ended, so immediately picked up his Literary Life to read. ( )

Somewhat scattered memoir. Not very impressive. ( )