Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry

Larry McMurtry can make any subject interesting. Here he tells us about his life in the book trade, his day job, and it is fascinating. Never mind that I don't know the people he mentions, the books he sought and found, the collections he and his business partner coveted. I know them now. McMurtry pulls us into his world effortlessly and we are happy to be included.

Growing up, there were no books in his house. There were stories, though, although he says they held little interest for a child. I wonder if this is where McMurtry developed his genius for realistic, amusing dialog. Nineteen books, a gift from a WWII bound cousin, opened the world of books and McMurtry was hooked.

I was particularly interested in McMurtry's writing habits. Right after graduating from North Texas State he began writing five pages of narrative per day, every day including holidays. A couple of years later, the accumulated pages won him a fellowship at Stanford University. He tells us he still writes every day; his output is now ten pages per day.

Lonesome Dove, McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, is my one of my favorite books if not my Number One Favorite. McMurtry says in Books: A Memoir that he has written no great novels, only good ones. Oh, Larry.

Read this good book. If you haven't already, read a great book by the same author: Lonesome Dove.