Is this the face of a butt-sniffing turd-eater?
One of the features in the October print edition of BookPage has officially become our most controversial piece of all time, drawing three whole angry emails. The response to the article “Going to the dogs: Life lessons from our furry friends” indicates that the dog memoir backlash has begun.
Apparently dogs are disgusting and heartless:
“Life lessons from furry friends”? Give me a break. I despise these “what can we learn from animals” books. Rose-colored glasses nonsense. How about the stupid and gross stuff pets do? Like pooping in public, humping in public, latching on to any idiot who feeds them, barking at the mail carrier, and losing interest in their offspring as soon as the lactation hormones wear off?
Worse, according to reader #2, they take Jesus’s rightful place as the provider of life lessons:
What’s with all these dog memoir books?? What’s with the “life lessons learned from dogs”? They’re just dumb dogs for crying out loud! Mere dogs have been turned into a sort of religion, complete with testmonial books! Gee, move over Jesus, a butt-sniffing turd eater has replaced you!
And in the end, they’re just plain tiresome:
Enough already with dog books. What’s next, “What I Learned about Life from Scooping My Dog’s Poop”??
Is it, as reader #1 says, time to “put this publishing trend to sleep?” What say you, readers? Have you grown weary of writers sharing the inspirational lessons they learned from their dogs?
(In defense of our piece, I would like to note that my grandmother called to tell me she enjoyed it.)
I do not care if that little pup is a turd-eater! How cute is he? He can sniff my butt anytime (though Emmy Lou, might have something to say about that…
).
Personally I will take dog memoirs over more Jane Austen ripoffs any day of the week! Pemberley Ranch better batten down the hatches; here comes hurricane Steph!
Ha. Yes, I think Emmy would have an opinion there!
Well, our editors worked hard to find the best four dog memoirs out there (and believe me, they had to weed through a lot of them), so those who are in to the trend should definitely check out this piece. Can’t wait to read your JA ripoff smackdown.
To be honest, I agree with those emails. That doesn’t mean I don’t still enjoy reading articles about all types of books though.
Great point, Susan.
Love it. “In defense of our piece, my grandmother called to tell me she enjoyed it.” Thank God for grandmothers. And our four-legged friends. (Even if you couldn’t pay me to read a pet-inspired memoir.)
To be honest — I’m not a huge fan of most of them either. But if you couldn’t tell from the post, I find these reactions just a teeny tad out of proportion.
People are insane. There is no doubt.
as a dog lover who likes some “dog memoirs” and others not so much, I would just like to say…if you don’t like it, don’t read it! I myself despise Harry Potter, so I simply do not read the books or attend the movies…..although I do sometimes question the mentality of those who do……. : )
Well, when last I checked, no one was being forced to read those books – we still live in a country where I get to choose what I read, don’t we? It’s like people who complain about all those violent TV programs…just change the channel!
Goodness, someone has their panties in a wad.
I am a huge dog lover and have cried and laughed through my fair share of books about them. I think it’s like any popular genre (can anyone say vampire fiction??)– once someone has great success with that form of writing, others try to cash in on the formula and people become oversaturated with it.
I don’t usually read animal memoirs, but I love animals. And besides, it’s a free country – people can read what they want!
If you don’t like books about dogs, don’t read them. Everyone has their own taste in books, that’s why there are so many out there to choose from. I would never criticize what somebody else is reading. I’m just happy to see people with a book.
I think the fact that the nastygram authors may not realize is that once one person starts talking about their dog, cat, rabbit, fish, etc; the discussion is on. Just like parents love to gush about their children, pet-owners love to gush about their fur-babies! Its infectious and as long as there are animals in this world, there will never, ever be a shortage of humans talking about them.