Author: MurderByDeath

There were so many things I didn’t like about this book, yet I still couldn’t stop reading it.

I’ve not read any of McMurty’s other books, although his bibliography is certainly impressive, but I have to believe they were not written in the same style as Books: A Memoir. If they are, I’m missing something.

As I started this book I kept thinking who writes like this? How did this make it through editing? About 25% of the way through I realised this was written as though it’s a straight transcription of a dictation: imagine someone you know, probably an older someone, sitting in their chair, telling you stories about ‘the old days’; the kind of stories where the teller gets sidetracked because he’s reminded of another story. That’s the narrative style of this book. There’s no timeline to speak of, no narrative cohesion. The book is 259 pages long and there are 109 chapters; a few chapters are no more than a paragraph and mostly just fleeting thoughts written down as they pass through.

I bought the book because I wanted memoirs of a bookseller and collector, but while I got some of that, I got a lot more “I” than I wanted. There’s a lot of matter-of-fact boasting about his accomplishments, his successes and a metric ton of name dropping. If the names were rain, we’d need an ark. Now, I don’t actually mind a bit of name dropping sometimes, if I have the first clue who the people actually are. But 90% of the names were other booksellers, traders, or scouts and were meaningless to me and a burden to keep track of. He writes, in chapter 101:

I’ve chosen, for the most part, to keep this memoir personality-free. Attempting to interest twenty-first-century readers in the personalities of (mainly) twentieth-century bookmen risks making this narrative more circumscribed than I want it to be.

Really? All due respect to McMurtry, but isn’t that something a writer should do? Does he think so little of me as a twenty-first-century reader that he thinks I can’t be interested in twentieth century bookmen? Were they that boring? Or can he just not be bothered because that would take the attention off himself? I gotta be honest, it feels like door #3 is closest to the truth. He must drop at least 100 names in this book and if any of them had any personality at all, it would have made this a much more interesting book.

In spite of all this, I never actually considered DNF’ing the book; I harbour a dream of someday being a book seller myself and as such, I hunger for first hand information about others’ experience. Sprinkled all too lightly throughout the 109 chapters were glimpses of just what I was looking for and I was eagerly forging my way through all the somewhat narcissistic horn blowing in order to mine these small gems. I was left at the end with the vague sense of getting what I wanted, but man, he made me work for it.

By Jacques Bonnet

ISBN: 9781906694586
Format: Hardcover

[star]

40,000 books. Bonnet has 40,000 books in his personal library. At one point he had bookshelves in his bathroom, so he couldn’t use the shower and could only run the bath with the window open. He also had bookshelves in his kitchen, so no cooking with strong flavours could be done either. I’ve been looking at my 1300 or so books thinking to myself I’m staring into the face of a possible obsession, but 40,000?!? I suddenly feel quite well-adjusted.

I loved this book; it hit just the right note of chatty and philosophical, with so many quotable bits I just stopped trying to keep track – I’d have ended up reproducing the book itself. Unlike Books: A Memoir this is entirely about the books: collecting, reading, organising; what Bonnet says about himself might amount to 2 sentences in total if you threw in a few articles and punctuation.

My only, only niggle is the result of my own reading inadequacies: he drops a lot of titles into the text (of course), and most of them are ones I’ve never heard of and seem to be only available in French. This is entirely understandable, because Bonnet is French and this book was originally written and published in French. So I was left in a few places skimming over French titles that meant little to me; c’est la vie.

Speaking of this being a translation, I can’t speak with any authority, but I thought this was an excellent translation insomuch as I felt like the author’s personality came through perfectly; the narrative felt smooth and natural and Reynolds took pains at the beginning to explain how French titles would be translated to English based on whether or not an English translation of the book was ever published. A bibliography is also included at the back of books mentioned in the text.

This one is for the book collectors out there; those who love physical books and find tranquility in standing in a room surrounded by them. For you, this is a book worth reading (and owning, of course!).

A Book Lover`s Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for, and Appreciating Books
by Harold Rabinowitz

Published: Jan 23, 2001 by Three Rivers Press
ISBN: 9780812931136
Format: Hardcover (US)

[star]

The Subtitle for this book is pretty much the most accurate synopsis of the book possible. It’s an excellent collection of bits: cartoons, lists, quotes, poems and essays that range in length from one page to twenty. I think there’s even a curse upon those who steal books in here somewhere.

Everything included revolves around the simple love (or obsession) for books, as objects more than the stories they contain. That’s not to say the joy of reading isn’t part of the whole, but this collection focuses on the joy, the need, of owning the books themselves. Readers who’ve gone wholly digital, or prefer a minimalist housekeeping approach won’t find much to love here.

As with any collection of writings from various authors and times, some are better than others, but there were very few I just didn’t care for and then only because I either found the writing too dense or dated or the subject matter not quite interesting enough to enthral me. There were maybe three all up that I wouldn’t have missed if they were left out. Given the table of contents runs to two and a half pages, that’s a pretty good ratio.

The authors also include a 6 page bibliography at the end of other books about books, with the ones they used to create A Passion for Books marked with an asterisk.

Find A Passion for Books at:
LibraryThing
WorldCat
BookFinder

I tried, I really did. 6 weeks and 3 library renewals, but ultimately I just ended up skimming through the last half, flipping through and reading bits about certain authors.

I was hoping for something more anecdotal, but this book is much denser and much more targeted at people who take literature Seriously. The writing is dryer than I like and almost academic.

The book deserves a higher rating; it’s obvious the author is passionate about his subject, I’m just not the proper audience for it.