An Alphabetical Life: Living It Up in the World of Books

by Wendy Werris

Little did Wendy Werris imagine that when she began a temp job at a Hollywood bookstore in 1970 at age nineteen, she had embarked on a thirty-five year career that would stretch into a journey of self-discovery and literary enlightenment. In An Alphabetical Life, Werris reflects upon how she came to embrace the book culture as her singular way of being in the world. Her career began when the book business was conducted amid an atmosphere of civility and wry humor, and her memoir captures the essence of this time and the people she met along the way. The challenges she faced, in what was then a male-dominated industry, are also discussed — particularly in 1976 when she was one of only two women repping books in the entire country. In describing the hilarious, eccentric characters that were her colleagues, lovers, and partners in crime, the essence of retail bookselling comes alive. Among the figures she profiles are Henry Robbins, editor of The World According to Garp; Alan Kahn, then of Pickwick Bookshop in Los Angeles, now President of Barnes and Noble Publishing; and many great and memorable retail bookbuyers and authors.

Genres: Books About Books, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Autobiography, Womens, Biography Memoir

284 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 2006

Reviews

[YoSafBridg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not sure that working in a bookstore carries quite the same cache that it used to. When i was in high school and then later, in college, all of my friends wanted to work in bookstores (actually a bookstore or a record store~as music stores were still called back then even though vinyl was already on its way out), like that would be The Coolest job. My first bookstore job was as a Christmas temp at a mall Waldenbooks (and i had actually had a job working at a music store~in that same mall a couple of years earlier~a chain that now also sells books~go figure) where i worked for a month and then quit to work another temp job at a ski resort with my boyfriend (i also had two other jobs at the time so my schedule was a bit full). About a year later i started at a tiny B. Dalton in the same mall (again it was a third job), i stayed there for about a year before i moved out of state to start library school and i loved it (actually it reminds me very much of the library i work in now~the staff feeling at least), minimum wage and all (by that time i had ditched my food service job and was squeaking by as a bookstore clerk, library shelver, and library volunteer~pay was lousy but i figured it was good experience, and it did put me ahead of many of my future classmates~surprisingly few had any public service experience~but at the time the last thing i wanted to be was a Public librarian~ugh).
Anyway, i do like to read books by fellow bibliophiles and bookpeople to try and recreate/evoke (re-evoke?) that whole feeling. I was rather excited to hear about Wendy Werris' An Alphabetical Life: Living It Up in the World of Books hoping for just such a tale, and i was actually a little disappointed. The book actually had great reviews so i can't really say why it didn't grab me, perhaps i didn't really care for Werris' personality (or what i could sense of it through the covers of a book)~perhaps she was a little like me~i've often wondered if i am very likable~tho it doesn't concern me much. Perhaps it was the sales rep in her. Perhaps it was that there were very few parts that felt like a personal story to me (or even a story of a fellow bibliophile). I do know that she seemed to be limited to her own world though she was speaking for the publishing world at large because i caught her in a few mistakes and inconsistencies which i knew to be wrong just from my own little book world (and that just irks me). Overall i'm glad i read the book, glad i didn't purchase it (don't you just love libraries?), but that's just my opinion~most of the reviews were much more positive...

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up at the library because, let's face it, it's about books. About a life working with books. Sadly, I didn't like the narrator of the book, which meant that I didn't like the book much.

An Alphabetical Life is Wendy Werris's memoir of how she started a career in books, first in a bookshop, then as a publisher's representative. I'm pretty sure this is also supposed to be about how it's like working in a male-dominated profession, and how she works to overcome various obstacles. Unfortunately, I never really connected with her, or felt that there was a larger story than whatever anecdote she was currently relating.

Even after reading the book, I'm not how being a woman publishing rep between then and now has changed. I don't see any clear changes, and it might as well be as chauvinistic as when Ms Werris first started out. And yes, her surviving that long is a really great thing, but it's really because she decided to conform, not because she made waves and changed the industry or something. So lesson here: if you're in a male-dominated world, act like what they expect, and they'll let you survive.

Plus, Ms Werris comes across as very self-centered. She has siblings, but I didn't see any evidence of her living a life with them until she mentions things like having to borrow money from one of them. Well, actually, this is pretty admirable, if the siblings don't want to be in a book. But then again, she does blame her parents for her screwed up family dynamics (of which, she appears to play a central role), so it doesn't particularly seem as though she's censoring for the sake of her family. In fact, what made me think she was self-centered isn't the lack of family in her book, but the way she treats others and her job. She got fired quite a few times, and each time, I couldn't help but think that she deserved to get fired for acting like a child. And of course, she wanted to get fired at that time. Not very responsible, in my opinion.

The book wasn't all bad though. I have a feeling that if I had the same character as Ms. Werris, I would have enjoyed it very much. She's not a bad writer, because her account of her rape was well-written, and I really felt for her then. I thought she was very brave in the way she handled it.

So overall, the one part of the book that made me feel for the author wasn't related to books. I would say that as an account of a life with books, it doesn't work out.

This review was first posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book. I started it on Thursday night before going to sleep and spent the rest of the day reading it yesterday. What an interesting life Wendy Werris has lead and yet she has the good sense not to "tell all" but rather to use various stories from her life.

First of all, once I started reading the book, I thought to myself, What made me get this book? But once I looked at the back cover, I recalled reading Werris's recent essay on escorting author Christopher Hitchens around LA on a book tour and feeling so relieved that she could smoke while he was in her car! Which, although I do NOT advocate smoking and have never smoked myself, I understand where she's coming from...in other words, she could be herself with another smoker.

So, anyone her book is great. Lots of interesting anecdotes from her years in retail bookstores and later in the book publishing business where she worked as a publisher's rep for many years. I was really captivated by her story. What Werris did give readers about her personal life was gripping and emotionally charged. My heart aches for what she went through and I am impressed with how she handled it.

[Candice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been on my "to read" list since I read a review of it some time ago. I was not disappointed. Wendy Werris is about my age and she tells the story of her life in book-related occupations. Her first job was working in a bookstore and she progressed to becoming a publisher's rep. She is also an author escort.

She tells the story of her life, warts and all, and writes of her parents' lives as well as her own. Her trip to Microsoft had some hilarious consequences as she realized that you do need to know something about computers in order to sell computer books. She met many authors and became friends with some. I also liked her technique of inserting titles of books that were popular in the period in which she was writing about. I could rememeber reading many of them and that, of course, brought back memories for me.

She chronicled what most people over 25 know - the independent bookstores are disappearing. But so are many other independent stores and shops of other kinds. A sad fact.

Her Alphabetical Life has been an interesting life, so far, and I'm glad that she was persuaded to write a book about it.

[mina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked getting an account of the independent bookstore world since those days are pretty much over. Some parts did drag a bit, but the book is definitely worth reading to get a sense of this bygone era where bookstore owners were individuals who had a passion for books. The celebrity run-ins were fun to read and something I didn't expect (the Jonathan Franzen settling for McDonald's story was humorous). It was also touching to read about the colorful characters she met in the book world throughout her life.

I found it a little strange that she would suddenly throw something in about her life and not really discuss it further, such as her cocaine dependency (except to say that she overcame it). Also the same about her various relationships to unsuitable men. We never get to find out what happens except that she didn't get married or have children. I definitely felt that there was more she could write as a result of all her introspection but perhaps that is another book?

[Stephanie Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"An Alphabetical Life" is Wendy Werris' memoir of her time in the book trade. As the book business changes so does her life She works for an independent book store, signs on with Rolling Stone's Straight Arrow books, becomes a publisher's rep and then an author escort. Readers awaiting next week's publication of "Freedom" will find her account of squiring around Jonathan Franzen entertaining. Ms Werris gives one a great sense of the day to day workings of her various jobs and delineates in a personal way the history of the book business. She also has good insights into the problems of being a woman in a male dominated field
The writing wasn't always sharp as it could have been and I thought a careful copy editor could have helped. My guess is that Ms. Werris is a fabulous talker and that's the sprit in which I read this book. I felt like I was having a chat with a friend whose had a very interesting life.
I would recommend this to anyone who loves books, book gossip and histories of vanishing trades

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended! Ms. Werris dealt with many celebs in her line of work, but at no point does she ever seem to be bragging. Quite the opposite - she comes across as very modest.

[Cheryl Licata · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I was reading, this memoir went from the lowest rating during the first hundred pages to a much higher rating in the last half of the book. I wasn't interested in the famous people the author had lunch with on any given day. I wasn't interested in her anecdotes about loving her job on one page and then looking for a new job on the next page. However, halfway through the book she settled into being a sales rep and that's when I began to learn the business. I learned why the author was successful at her career. I learned how to sell books to bookstores that you may or may not have any interest in reading. I learned that reading books and understanding her clients are vital parts of the sales rep's job. Toward the end of the memoir, the author wrote an amazing paragraph about the power of books. "We never know what may happen when we pick up a book to read. The turning of a page might actually change the course of our existence. There is something miraculous about this. Truth strikes at the very heart of books, and the readers who turn themselves over with great trust to finding the essence of themselves."

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Memoir of a woman's life spent working for bookstores and publishers.

Good thing: The inside eye into the publishing/sales rep business was interesting (I've seen the bookstore/bookseller aspect from first hand).

Bad thing: Way too much name-dropping. Way too much about one-night stands, drinking, drugs. Not nearly enough about books! I didn't even get a feel for what the author likes to read.

Overall, a disappointing book. It was much more about Wendy Werris than about books/publishing/etc. and I didn't like the author's personality.

[Susan Henderson]

Spanning 35 years in the L.A. book world, this memoir is two histories in one: the story of a booklover whose first job at Mr. Pickwick led to a lifelong career in sales/publishing, and also a story of the book industry itself. The sometimes-frolicking, sometimes-harrowing story features not only celebrity authors but the unseen and unsung indie bookstore owners, sales reps, and small publishers. If you are a writer or if you simply live books, this is the behind-the-scenes look you may have always wondered about.

[Liane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms Werris writes an engaging, highly readable memoir about her life in the book industry. I was immediately swept into her life with her beautifully crafted sentences and delightful descriptions of various people she knew from the time she started working at 19 in an LA bookstore. While the book focusses mainly on her career and all the intriguing people and events that she were a part of it, the second focus on the book is her personal evolution into the woman she is today.
This book is beautifully written. It does not disappoint!

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but not great. It was interesting to read about how her career unfolded, but I was hoping that it would be more about great books or how wonderful stories get turned into books. I was not as interested in learning about her personal weaknesses and challenges. It's a good memoir, it just wasn't the right one for me.

[Lisa Mcbroom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coming of age story about an aimless young woman who discovers the beauty of the written word and working in book stores. Werris gives a nostalgic and poignant memories of the small independent book stores before the big chains that took over. Also important is the feel of an actual book the spine the turning of the pages before the great god Kindle took over.

[Missy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wendy Werris brings her love of book selling to life, first as a retailer at the famous Pickwick bookstore in Hollywood and then on the road as she became a traveling saleswoman for a myriad of book publishing houses. Her backstory of growing up in a show business family is a poignant look back into the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I couldn’t put it down. I found Wendy’s story enthralling.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful and insightful story about one woman's life in the book business.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting history of book selling and publishing. There is a lot of nostalgia and some wild times.

[ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

dnf

[Treasure Island Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleasant memoir about the book business. Many names dropped that I had to research. Very few books mentioned.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about books, or rather book selling. While some books are mentioned that the author, Wendy Werris, like or enjoyed, there really isn’t any sense of the actual books themselves. So this becomes more a book about selling, and it could be anything really. Although it’s not anything, it’s books and bookstores and occasionally authors.

It starts with her first job, almost as a whim to do something the summer before heading off to college. Werris talks her way into working at a bookstore, Pickwick in Hollywood, one of the family favorite bookstores. She enjoyed the job and the people she worked with so much that she chucked school and stuck with the bookstore job, quickly raising in the ranks with next managing the children’s books.

We get a glimpse into her life growing up, with her father a writer of comedy, writing jokes for people like Johnny Carson and Jackie Gleason. In fact the work with Gleason took him away from the family for months on end caused a lot of issues for young Wendy, which is brought up many times throughout the book. Around 2/3rd the way through there was mention of a sister, and so little was there about her two sisters that I was thinking she was an only child!

I wasn’t thrilled by the writing style or the way Werris would categorize and talk about people, and the structure of the book was a little off at times. It was mostly linear but not entirely so we had this going back and forth in her career that fit the story about a specific person, but made for some confusion on my part. Then we get to the latter part of the book and even more personal for her, when she writes about a late-night intruder who raped her. Now the writing got much better, even the last few chapters seemed to improve. It was almost mirroring her life in some ways, as before she went to counseling to deal with the rape and her “missing” father she found solace in drinking and drugs, and wild spending. After counseling she was better, and so was the writing.

I ended the book enjoying the book much more than the first half, for a little insight into the book industry, although how it was back in the days before big box stores and internet bookstores. The demise of small independents is a sad note in the book industry, but there is hope as some still do exist and not all have gone away.

[KATY · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this book, towards the end I started skipping paragraphs and a couple pages just to get it finished. I have trouble leaving things half-read, so I stuck it out almost until the end. I didn't read the last couple chapters because I really felt that I was torturing myself with determination that was unnecessary.

In this autobiography she skips around in time, and the jumps from chapter to chapter are jarring and confusing. She tells pointless stories about run-ins with famous people which seem to have no effect on her life or the story, simply an excuse to name-drop. Multiple times she is fired from jobs, but only after having brilliant epiphanies that she no longer wanted the job and was seeking to get fired. Really, every time she got fired she was relieved and liberated. I don't buy it. The writing was not awful, but not above average either. There seemed to be no main point, just a lot of rambling excuses.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book as I work in a bookstore and find the publishing industry full of good stories. After reading this book, it made me wish things were simpler now, the way they were when the sales reps would visit the stores in their territory with a few titles they were selling and the buyer or bookstore owner/manager would decide if and how many based on their customer base. I realize it might still be somewhat like this at the indies but unfortunately I work at a big box store and our stock is chosen by people in New York. I love hearing about the relationships Wendy built in the business. Not so fond of the "good ole boys" but hey they are still around unfortunately, especially in the South. I loved reading about someone who loves and obsesses over books as much as I. Sometimes I think I'm the only one but after reading this, I realize there are others, if only a small portion of the population, at least I'm not alone.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wendy Werris writes of her adventures and experiences in the book business, retail and as a publisher's rep. I enjoyed reading this memoir. I think this book would possibly be more attractive to readers who have had experiences working in sales and also if you have some familiarity with the Los Angeles area, but it's certainly not necessary in order to enjoy the book. The story of her rape and survival of that event was very well-written. I also enjoyed reading about her parents. I absolutely loved the paragraph from page 237: "We never know what may happen when we pick up a book to read. The turning of a page might actually change the course of our existence. There is something miraculous about this. Truth strikes at the very heart of books and the readers who turn themselves over with great trust to finding the essence of themselves."

[Miss Lemon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took awhile to read this one and not too sure why I stuck with it - just because of the great title, I guess. . . kept expecting more. The beginning leaned towards filling the reader in on the life of a bookseller. The author started as a book store clerk then moved on to having a book 'route' and selling her co.'s titles to the stores in her territory. Good enough but then it slid into an autobiography of her family history and psychosis and her 70's 80's 90's with drugs and multi-one-night-stands then into finding her self along. All that with a backdrop of dealing with big chain bookstores taking over the book market. All in all a sad and at times even depressing read... don't bother.

[Jeannen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this book at M. Coy Books on my way to the bus one evening -- made a long list of possible books-to-buy, but picked this one up from the “We love these books” rack that the staff maintains. It’s about Wendy Werris’s life in the book business, and I am very interested in books and in the businesses of both producing and selling books, so I thought it sounded great. What a let down! I don't think there was an original thought or expression in any part of the book that I read – and it was all about Werris, and only tangentially about the places she worked and people she met. I didn’t even finish this one, and it hit the used bookstore bag really quickly.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wendy Werris’ memoir begins with her landing a job at the Pickwick Bookshop in Hollywood, and her subsequent successful career as an independent sales rep for several dozen publishers from 1976 to 2006. Anecdotes on publishers and numerous authors (Richard Brautigan, Jonathan Franzen, etc.) are supplemented with bits about her parents, her close friendship with Miriam “Micky” Bass, and a traumatizing rape. When Micky is struck with kidney failure Wendy immediately undergoes the tests and preparations to donate one of her own kidneys to her friend. This is for those interested in the world of bookselling or reading about a successful businesswoman’s career.

[Sandi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't even rate this book. I really thought it sounded interesting to read about someone who had worked in book stores, bought and sold books but all Wendy Werris does is write diatrible dribble. She drops names as if we should be impressed, she talks about her immaturity towards finances which showed me how important it is to save for a rainy day and most of all her drinking and drug habit really didn't make me think she had learned anything from it. So 59 pages from the end I stopped reading because even though I am a diehard book fanatic- I just couldn't take it ANYMORE!
So I've read what I did and considered it read!!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This just popped into my head today and I remembered how much I enjoyed reading it. It covers such a broad range of topics, and more and more details kept popping up -- about her time at Pickwick Books in Hollywood with Eugene Epstein; about her time as a book sales rep sleeping in crappy hotels in Arizona; about her father's experience writing for 1950s and 1960s TV.

I supposed critics would call it a bit rangy, but as a memoir about books, it's wonderful. It doesn't really have a plot or theme, per se, and as I recall the ending was a little untidy, but I would recommend it to anyone who ever wanted to work in a bookstore or library.

[Me · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the age of 19, Wendy Werris started her “summer” job in the book business at Pickwick Bookshop in Hollywood. She takes us with her in a book journey that extended for about 39 years in the book industry.
What’s not to love about this book?
The book business, the writers, the publishers and the small and massive books stores.
Wendy Werris isn’t a great writer and to be honest she was too ordinary for me to care for her life story! But by the third chapter I was hooked. She’s such a simple humble soul who saw something interesting in every character she ever met. and I think that’s how we should reflect upon life.

[Jeansue Libkind · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyone who has worked in a bookstore or in publishing will find much that resonates in this book, especially the sales reps. Her stories of initiation by fire struck a chord with this former rep; I’m glad I’m not the only one to once show up without a pen (makes it hard to write orders, it does). Werris couples this inside scoop on how books are sold with her tales of her father’s show biz connections and the horrendous ordeal of her rape. It took Werris a long time to grow up but she seems on the right track now.

[Lennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this memoir, Wendy Werris discusses her long career in the book business in which she started out as a sales clerk in a Hollywood bookstore to becoming a rep for major publishing companies. I really enjoyed reading this book and learning how the industry evolved and changed over time. I was envious of the fact that she had an exciting job that included hob-knobing with famous authors, traveling, and getting to visit various independent bookstores across the western U.S. If you have a passion for books then you have to read this memoir--I highly recommend it!