Howl: A collection of contemporary dog wit.

Seventy personal stories and essays by various writers including #DaveBarry, Al Franken, Roy Blount Jr. and many more.

Howl, from the Editors of the BARk

Genre: Animals, Humor

Published 2007, 331 pages

This is probably a book that only dog/animal lovers will enjoy (of which I'm one). That’s all this book is about. I read this book over a period of several months. Because it’s just brief, unrelated stories, I would read a couple chapters then set it aside for a few nights, then read a couple more chapters when I needed another dog fix.

The chapters were very short, most were 2-4 pages long. This book is mostly (see next paragraph) about the humor of having a dog (and the occasional cat) – from a 70-pound dog thinking he’s a lap dog, to wet kisses, wanting your dog to sleep on your bed with you, them chasing their favorite ball, trying to train them, basically everything you can imagine.

And maybe some you can’t – one author writes of her testing of dog food by eating it for a week, both dry and wet. Gross! But sort of fascinating too as she discussed whether it actually tasted like beef, or chicken, or salmon as advertised; or, was there enough gravy, was the kibble crunchy enough?

Because these stories are written by many different authors, it’s sort of a mixed bag of very funny, good, okay, heartwarming, not that interesting, and sad (yes, beware, there are a few sad stories about injured or dying dogs that I didn’t like reading). Ultimately, not a book for everyone but there was some good reading here.

photo by Donna of her adorable Lexi