Larry McMurtry has recently added a memoir of book collection/dealing to his literary canon. While not a book that will be appreciated by everyone, it is none the less a good insight into the man as well as an interesting analysis of the state of "readership" in the United States. Below are some excerpts from this meandering and personal narrative:
Chapter 89:
Regarding the loss of many small town booksellers....
"What does any of this say about the most important factor of all, when it comes to books: reading? Book selling will never quite expire unless reading expires first. The secondhand book business, both as a trade and as a subculture, has existed for centuries because people want to read, and the assumption book dealers work on is that people will always want to read. But will they? Seeing the changes that have occurred in the last few years, I sometimes wonder. Civilization can probably adjust to the loss of the secondhand book trade, though I dont think its really likely to have to. Can it, though, survive the loss of reading? That's a tougher question, but a very important one."
Chapter 91:
"A chapter or two back I brought up the matter of reading. What if it does stop? Even now the very successful rise of the audiobook suggests that nearly as many people are being read to as actually read. I dont like the audiobooks but at least they preserve the human longing for narrative, and for a certain linkage between the author and the reader. A story gets told, and loyalties to authors might be developed. The complex truth is that many activities last for centuries, and then simply (or unsimply) stop. We rarely bleed people now, although it was a common therapy for centuries. (Now in some quarters, leeches are coming back, which is a hopeful sign.) In commerce extinctions happen often. It didnt take electricity long to kill of the kerosene lantern."
Chapter 92:
" Today the sight that discourages book people the most is to walk into a public library and see computers where books used to be. In many cases not even the librarians want books to be there. What consumers want now is information, and information increasingly comes from computers. That is a preference I cant grasp, much less share, though I'm well aware that computers have many valid uses. They save lives, and they make research in most cases a thing that's almost instantaneous. They do many good things. But they dont really do what books do, and why should they usurp the chief function of a public library, which is to provide readers access to books? Books can accommodate the proximity of computers but it doesnt seem to work the other way around. Computers now literally drive out books from the place, that should, by definition, be books' own home: the library."
