Danny Deck, a young writer on the verge of success, drifting from his native Texas to California, then back again, unsuccessfully married to Sally. Larry McMurtry marvelous ability to re-create the subtle textures of people's lives.

In a prolific life of singular literary achievement, Larry McMurtry has succeeded in a variety of genres: in coming-of-age novels like The Last Picture Show; in collections of essays like In a Narrow Grave; and in the reinvention of the Western on a grand scale in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove. Now, in Books: A Memoir, McMurtry writes about his endless passion for books: as a boy growing up in a largely "bookless" world; as a young...