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Books: A Memoir
 
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Books: A Memoir (Hardcover)

by Larry Mcmurtry (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £15.99
Price: £14.39 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Books: A Memoir + Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: ibooks; 1st Simon & Schuster Hardcover Ed edition (8 Jul 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1416583343
  • ISBN-13: 978-1416583349
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 17 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 215,893 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #19 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > M > McMurtry, Larry
    #21 in  Books > Home & Garden > Antiques & Collectables > Antiques & Collectables by Subject > Books, Magazines & Printed Matter > Books

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Product Description

Synopsis
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 wr

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A BOOK FOR BOOK LOVERS, 4 May 2009
By Alexander Bryce (Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I believe that I have read almost everything whether fiction, travel or history by Mr. McMurtry [see my report on Sin Killer]. In short I am a big time fan. So much so that I went to Archer City, Texas [Thalia in The Last Picture Show] which is his very small home town; not much more than a cross roads and now thanks to him one of the world's leading book towns. There I met with the great man who was charming, reserved and almost shy. This impression I had of him comes through again in this commentary on his life and I think his first love as a book scout and dealer. His passion for books shines through and it is utterly believable when he tells us that he would rather buy than sell books. I don't think once he traces and secures a volume or as is frequently the case a whole library that he likes to let them go. Look up a list of his titles and you will see that he is a prolific writer, but there could never be a list of his incredible reading as no list could possibly include the variety and shear number of books devoured by him so far.
While this is about Larry McMurtry book dealer, he does open the door, if only slightly, to other aspects of his life. His boyhood years on his family's bookless ranch; his student and early, hard up, teaching years; his debut publication Horseman Pass By which thanks to Paul Newman was almost instantly made into the film Hud. And what did he do with this first real money--he set up home and of course bought books. He mentions the occasional film script taken on for the sole purpose of funding additional stock and his elevation to dinner party celebrity if not permanently at least briefly after Hud, The Last Picture Show, Terms Of Endearment, Pulitzer prize winning Lonesome Dove and most recently screen writer and Oscar winner with Diana Ossana for Annie Proulx' Brokeback Mountain. Now over seventy and in spite of all his literary success and honours, he can still be found unpacking a consignment or helping to load a van at his store in Archer City.
He touches on his marriage and relationships, and he is obviously close to and very proud of his son, but as with other work e.g. Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen he only allows one a glimpse of his domestic life. A private man with every right to be so.
This however is not meant to be an autobiography. It is predominantly about the life of a book dealer and the weird and wonderful characters that inhabit that interesting and perhaps vanishing world. It is a "must read" for any book lover and in particular any fan of Larry McMurtry.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The master writer is also a bookman..., 30 Jul 2008
By Bill Pullman "Book reviewer" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

I came to know McMurtry as many did through his excellent novel Lonesome Dove. Then I learned I already knew him through the many screenplays and novels he has written that became major motion pictures: Hud, Last picture show, terms of endearment to name a few. I have since read most of what he has written. I heard he owned an eclectic used antique book store filled with many hard to find books many collector items, his novel Cadillac Jack was about an antique book scout. So I was interested to read this memoir of McMurtry's life as a bookman. I use the term Bookman because you don't have to be a writer to be a bookman. McMurtry's simple mastery of the language is again on display as he takes on his journey of becoming a book scout and collector. The characters he meets and the places he travels are brought vividly to life. He ends up opening used book stores that carry rare and collectable editions, the eclectic of which is the one he opens in his home town of Archer City Texas (also the setting for the last Picture show, and subsequent sequels). McMurtry gives the reader an adventurous and some time comic look into the world of those who collect and covet rare books, a world inhabited by some strange birds! What I enjoyed most about this book, however, was the insight into how the many books he has read has formed his literary outlook and influenced his writings ( I have more than I few new books on my to be read list after finishing this book). This is a book I will read more than once.

I also Recommend "Across the High Lonesome" which I picked up after seeing it recommended by McMurtry
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