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Happy Monday!
The other day I was reading a New York Times article in which a pair of professors of evolutionary anthropology attempted to get to the bottom of our growing obsession for canine literature.
According to the article, there are more than 70,000 dog books listed on Amazon, including dozens of novels, many of them best-selling tear-jerkers, such as Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain, a book I have yet to read.
Nevertheless, in the article, Vanessa Woods and Brian Hare, authors of The Genius of Dogs, attributed this literary fondness to what researchers call the theory of mind, or, simply put, “your thoughts, feelings and beliefs about the thoughts, feelings and beliefs of others."
This hypothesis, they suggest, is the reason pet lovers like you and me have a yearning to know, and understand, what’s going on inside our dogs’ heads.
And so we read.
In my case, this hunger for comprehension began with a book called Algonquin: The Story of a Great Dog. It happened to be the first book I ever read.
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American author Dion Henderson’s heartwarming tale about a boy and his hunting dog left little impression on my developing brain but the illustrated image of a stoic hunting dog on its cover is a keen reminder of how delighted my nine-year-old self was to get through all 211 pages.
As I became more proficient at reading, I continued to bury my nose in more books centred around our favourite four-legged companions.
My all-time best-loved, Wilson Rawls’ Where the Red Fern Grows, is one dearest to my heart, and one that I have committed to memory.
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I’m sure many of you pet lovers might also recall the touching autobiographical tale about a boy, Billy Colman, and his pair of loyal Coonhounds he names Little Ann and Old Dan.
Months after I tearfully closed the book, my mother and I walked to the now-defunct Hyland Theatre on Main Street in the city’s north end to watch the film adaptation and cried, holding hands, all the way home.
That was in 1974 and since then, my list of favourites has grown to include Finding Gobi: A Little Dog with a Very Big Heart by Dion Leonard; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon; A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron; Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog by John Grogan; and Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis.
Now, I can’t say I’ve gained any insight into the cerebral workings of my dogs, but I do know that the words on those pages served to remind me that the bond we all share with man’s best friend is universal, an across-the-board kind of commitment that never wavers. And their love, their loyalty plus the joyfulness they provide, is unconditional.
But I guess I never really need a book to tell me that!
Do you have a favourite dog story? Drop me an email, and let’s talk books about dogs!!!
Have a great week!
Leesa Dahl
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