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A Memoir
by Larry McMurtry
Larry McMurtry's fascinating and surprisingly intimate memoir of his lifelong passion of buying, selling, and collecting rare antiquarian books is "a necessary and marvelous gift" (San Antonio Express-News).
Spanning a lifetime of literary achievement, Larry McMurtry has succeeded at a wide variety of genres, from coming-of-age novels, such as The Last Picture Show; to essays, like those in In a Narrow Grave; to the reinvention of the "Western" on a grand scale like the Pulitzer Prize–winning Lonesome Dove. Here at last is the private McMurtry writing about himself as a boy growing up in a largely "bookless" world, as a young man devouring the world of literature, as a fledgling writer and family man, and above all as one of America's most prominent "bookmen." He brings the reader along on his journeys to becoming an astute and adventurous collector who would eventually open book stores of rare and collectible books in Georgetown, Houston, and finally in his previously "bookless" hometown of Archer City, Texas.
Reading Books is like reading the best kind of diary—full of wonderful anecdotes, amazing characters, spicy gossip, and shrewd observations. Like its author, Books is erudite, full of life, and full of great stories. Yet the most curious tale of all is the amazing transformation of a reluctant young cowboy into a world-class literary figure who has spent his life not only writing books, but rounding them up the way he once rounded up cattle. At once chatty, revealing, and deeply satisfying, Books is Larry McMurtry at his best.
What’s the funniest book you remember reading?
"Right Ho, Jeeves" by PG Wodehouse is so funny and had me in stitches! "Heartburn" by Nora Ephrom and "Duane's Depressed" by Larry McMurtry both are laugh out loud books for me. (I wonder if Duane's Depressed" holds up in 2026.)
-Pat_Dodson
Did you read any books in 2025 that are widely considered classics? If so, which ones and why?
My reading list was really light on classic reads this year. The only two that might be considered more well-known, as well as "modern," classics were Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry) and Foundation (Isaac Asimov) . My other classic reads were more obscure: Spain in our Hearts . Pablo Neruda The Qu...
-Gabi_J
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (11/13/2025)
I'm still reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry-1/3 through its 950 pages, and wanted to say it is as wonderful and amazingly good as everybody's been telling me for decades! And I say this as someone who would have insisted I have zero interest in cowboy stories. And I'm still listening to Ben...
-Judith_G
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (10/23/2025)
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman, Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber and Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.
-Gabi_J
What's your favorite book series?
The Lonesome Dove series by Larry McMurtry and the Longmire books by Craig Johnson
-Leslie_R
What are you reading this week? (7/31/2025)
Just started Anything for Billy by Larry McMurtry. Picked it because I needed to read a book because I wanted to, not because I had to and the Old West is my most favorite setting. Just finishing the audiobook of The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and have really enjoyed the story and the narra...
-Lana_Maskus
Think about your favorite genre. To you, which author is the master of that genre?
My favorite fiction genre is by far historical fiction. There are so many great authors writing historical fiction, but I'd have to say my all-time number one is Larry McMurtry. Nothing will ever top Lonesome Dove as my favorite book of all time. Willa Cather's writing is beautiful. I enjoy liter...
-Lana_Maskus
Which literary death was the hardest for you to come to terms with?
There are two books that bring me to tears even now when I think about them. When Old Dan, a coonhound, dies and Little Anne, the other half of this hunting pair, grieves herself to death at his grave in Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. I cried for days afterward. The death of Gus McCrae...
-Lana_Maskus
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This information about Books was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Larry McMurtry is the author of twenty-eight novels, two collections of essays, three memoirs, and more than thirty screenplays, including the coauthorship of Brokeback Mountain, for which he received an Academy Award. He lives in Archer City, Texas.
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