An Alphabetical Life: Living It Up in
the World of Books by Wendy Werris
A Bibliophile's Delight And A First Class Memoir
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.
Personal Review: An Alphabetical Life: Living It Up in the World
of Books by Wendy Werris
I'd never heard of Wendy Werris, but this woman writes like someone
who's been doing it all her life. It must be all those books she's read, a kind
of osmosis. Her life-long love affair with books is so obvious that I
immediately recognized a kindred spirit. But this is not JUST about books;
it is a finely nuanced and moving memoir of the first order. Werris's
descriptions of her unorthodox Jewish home life, her father's show
business connections and success - followed by a long slide into oblivion -
are all so perfectly rendered you can feel the joys and sorrows. And she
doesn't shrink from the more painful times either - her personal battles with
drugs and alcohol, her brutal rape by a stranger, the long slow declines
and deaths of her parents, and the sad dehumanizing changes in the book
business which she bears witness to over more than thirty years. In her on-
line blog, Ms. Werris notes she's currently working on a bio of her dad,
Snag Werris, once a chief writer for Jackie Gleason. Write on, Wendy. I'll
read it. - Tim Bazzett, author of the ReedCityBoy trilogy.
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