Larry McMurtry continues his autobiography in the syle of Books.
I think of it as an autobiography told in bullet points. No great secrets revealed, no long discussions or introspectives. In this book a literary person drops short (usually) comments about the literary scene as he's known it. The strongest parts of the book are his comments about other writers, particularly those he thinks are good. I picked up several suggestions for new (to me) authors. I enjoyed reading it but a reader expecting a traditional autobiography will be dissapointed. ( )

Unfocused and meandering 2nd volume of memoirs; I'd recommend BOOKS to bibliophiles but not this one for writers. Barely touches on his writing process or what works for him as a writer. Far more about what went on around his writing books (and far more about the politics of PEN than anyone outside of NYC might care about). Not bad, and I did finish, but disappointing on the whole. ( )

I scaanned some of the other reviews and people seem to be greatly disappointed in this because of its "unfocused" quality. I enjoyed the sort of meandering style, as if you were just sitting on the porch listening to him tell stories. I don't turn to McMurty for "focus" in any case. His books meander, and I sort of wait for them to latch onto a plot, and then I realize the meandering is the book and much more life-like in that sense. I liked hearing about his friendship with Susan Sontag (talk about an odd couple!) and his own favorite novel ("Duane's Depressed;" I liked this one a lot, too). An entertaining excursion, no literary masterpiece, perfect to listen to in the car... ( )

I enjoyed this book because I'm a fan of Larry McMurtry. I'm not sure other would find it as interesting. As in other reviews it is dry and there is a lot of names dropping but as with any memoir of this type you pull tid-bits of information, namely some authors to check out and books to acquire. It is short and not a lot of substance. I found his "Book" memoir more interesting but still it's worth the read from a man who is truly a "book" man. ( )

Typically love to read about writer's lives -- one of my favorite genres whether memoir or fiction, but McMurtry let me down. This read like a dry goodreads account: mostly name-dropping in the literary world with a brief account of how he met them or why. Did I mention dry? Like a sentence or two at best. MIT thinking combined with lit talk. A rare book collector would probably gobble it up like popcorn though, because he treats rare books with as much euphoria as he does Kurt Vonnegut. This is a writer who really knows writers, how to class them and the books they produced. A true bibliophile that makes me pale in comparison. I did perk up when he used J.K. Rowling in one sentence. So maybe my biggest let-down was the era he focused on. ( )