Books: a memoir, by Larry McMurtry

 

I am fond of reading accounts of others' reading habits and interests, so I was happy to find this book on my most recent foray to the Dog Ears Bookstore in Hoosick Falls, NY. This is not a typical memoir, although it does start with McMurtry telling of how he grew up in a home without books until his cousin dropped off a box with 19 books for him. Over the next 109 very brief chapters, he tells us many stories and anecdotes about his life as a book scout,  used book store owner, and rare books dealer. The stories are very brief, two or three pages each, and many of them seem incomplete, as if he got distracted, went off on a tangent, and never returned. McMurtry drops a lot of names into the narrative, some of famous people and others that may have been well-known, but whom I never heard of. Throughout, he tells us about his reading habits, as he moves from accounts of women travelers to the diaries of James Lees-Milne, a minor English literary figure. This is a brief (259 pages) look into the reading habits and book-selling career of one of the 20th century's most successful novelists and screenwriters.