Book #29 Books by Larry McMurtry

Books: A Memoir
By Larry McMurtry
Published by Simon & Schuster, 2008
ISBN 1416583343, 9781416583349
259 pages

"... I realized that reading was probably the cheapest and most stable pleasure of life. Sometimes books excite me, sometimes they sustain me, but rarely do they disappoint me..."

That's pretty much how I feel about reading books. I've always been a reader, my mother will tell you that I had a very bad book habit as a child. I was an outsider with kids my own age, so I made friends with books. Whatever books I could get my hands on.

McMurtry's passion for books, book selling and scouting reminded me why I started this challenge and helped me get over that whiny I-wanna-throw-in-the-towel stage. It also touched the side of me that loved working in the secondhand market. I scouted antiques and collectibles for my mom for years, I spent a number of years working at a brick and motor online resale shop, I had my own small reference library - I can still tell the difference between Murano Vaseline glass and Blenko's.

(editor's note: I have no idea what the fuck any of that shit is, and she STILL does this secondhand market stuff. In the last month she's acquired a SNES, a Genesis, a N64, about 40 games, a Laserdisc Player and about 40 Laserdiscs. She's successfully leveled up to 1997)

Overall the book's a fast read, with interesting one to two page chapters. Even though its a memoir, it's not chronological, It doesn't need to be. The stream-of-consciousness text works perfectly, and I'm rather glad I picked it up as when I did.

Three and a Quarter out of Four Stars.