My second Dog Days post this week! - but this time the question (and the title) comes from Deb at Booking Through Thursday (because her dog is turning 10 today):
... what animal-related books have you read?
Which do you love? Do you have a favorite literary dog?
(Snoopy, anyone?)
Oh Snoopy, yes, absolutely! Thanks for the hint, Deb, or I might not have thought of him. I don't always spontaneously think of comic strips as "books" in connection with literary questions… But Snoopy I'd definitely count as "literary" ;) …
I think the most “grown-up” book I’ve read that was all about animals (written from the perspective of the animals) is probably Watership Down by Richard Adams (1972). That’s about rabbits though – not dogs.
No dogs in the other animal-related books that come first to mind for me either (at least not as main characters):
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (1894)
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)
Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne (1926) (do toy bears count?)
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (1950’s)
(Winnie-the-Pooh and Narnia belong to my all-time favourites, as regular followers of this blog will already know! And so does Snoopy.)
Then there are of course lots of books where animals play an important part even if the story is not told from their point of view. Browsing my bookshelf for more recently read books my eyes fell on The Conjuror’s Bird by Martin Davies (2005). Not about a live bird but an extinct one!
Oo.. i didn't think of Winnie the Pooh. Never read the book though. but I love Eeyore!
ReplyDeleteI used to love Winnie th Pooh, but for the past few years I've been convinced that they're all on drugs (not that there's anything wrong with that), and that everything they say is code for their next fix. I realise that this says more about me than I probably should be comfortable with, but whatever.
ReplyDeleteAlso, vad roligt att träffa på en svensk blogg så här i BTT. Det har aldrig hänt innan.
Good answers.
ReplyDeletehttp://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2011/07/booking-through-thursday.html
Wind In The Willows
ReplyDeleteAll Of Beatrix Potter
Watership Down
All of the James Herriot All Creatures series
These ares still among my faves, especially Watership and Herriot!
Shannon - Winnie the Pooh should be read in the original, not the Disney version!
ReplyDeleteFBT - I've been taking part in BTT almost weekly for over a year now I think!
Ginny - I never read Beatrix Potter's books but I have the film about her on DVD 'Miss Potter'. I didn't think of James Herriot! I've listened to one or two of the first books as audio books, and I also have the first two seasons of the TV-series on DVD. I know I watched the whole series when it was first broadcasted.
i love a story, fiction only, that has a dog or cat in it. NOT the kind that talk out loud like people. my most favorite book of all time that i have read half dozen times or more is
ReplyDeletedean r.Koonz Watchers...a dog that can talk telepathically with his owner. I love Calvin and Hobbs but then Hobbs is a cat. my second favorite book is Thor by Wayne Smith and i love the dog. If i see a book at the library and it has a picture of a dog on it, i grab it.
Great choices! :)
ReplyDeleteHere's mine:
http://amylunderman.blogspot.com/2011/07/booking-through-thursday-dog-days.html
I meant to say when I originally read this that I thought Watership Down one of the most depressing and 'horrible' (for want of another adjective) books that I'd ever read.
ReplyDelete