Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know

Although I have not owned a dog of my own for several years now, I have always been a dog lover and I still very much enjoy getting to know the dogs that belong to my friends and family.  And, like most dog lovers, I have often wondered what was really going on between the ears of those critters while they look me so directly in the eyes.

With Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know, Alexandra Horowitz provides answers to most of my questions.  Some of her answers are amazing and some are a bit disappointing, but all of them are interesting - and make great conversation starters.

Let’s begin with one that will probably disappoint and crack up an equal number of dog owners: the doggy kiss through which they and their animal supposedly express their affection.  According to Horowitz, “our mouths taste great to dogs.”  They are, in fact, falling back on a method they used as puppies to get their mothers to regurgitate some partially digested food for them.  Just think how often you have disappointed your kissing-dog by not following through with the hoped for snack.

I was surprised, as I suspect many people will be, that our modern-day wolf is not the ancestor of the dog, but that they instead share a common ancestor.  While today’s wolves and dogs do share many characteristics, they have many differences.  One of the most noticeable differences is the dog’s willingness to look humans directly in the eye as it seeks their guidance.  Wolves, on the other hand, want nothing to do with eye contact.

Inside of a Dog is filled with chapters that explore a dog’s tendency to “see” the world through his sense of smell, the supposed psychic powers of dogs, the meaning of growls and barks, how to read a dog’s body language, what a dog sees through his eyes (including dealing with the myth that dogs do not see color), a dog’s sense of time, and what a dog does all day at home alone.

One of the more fascinating topics visited is the highly structured play techniques of dogs, even when meeting a strange dog for the first time.  We have all witnessed a tiny dog taking on a huge canine opponent in mock battle - and living to play another day.  Horowitz through hours and hours of watching slowed-down videos was able to identify the signals that dogs send to each other during this kind of play.  She noted the willingness of the larger dog to handicap himself when taking on a dog much smaller than himself, either by falling onto his back or crouching low enough for the other dog to look him in the eye.  What she describes is quite remarkable and I would love to see some of the video she describes.

Dog lovers, this one is for you.  It works particularly well because, for the most part, Horowitz avoids getting too sentimental or cute in expressing her personal love for the dog.  I am definitely not a fan of “dog novels” (or “cat novels,” for that matter) so I thoroughly enjoyed all the dog-stereotype debunking included in Inside of a Dog.

Rated at: 4.0

Borders Can't Afford to Pay Publishers for New Inventory

I'm confused.  How can a bookseller that cannot afford to pay publishers for new inventory be hoping to buy its biggest rival?  That seems to be the situation Borders finds itself in at the moment, although I do suppose that since the company cannot even finance new books for its stores that it is probably no longer dreaming of acquiring Barnes & Noble.

According to ConsumerAffairs.com:

Shares of Borders fell to below $1 after it announced that it couldn't afford to pay publishers for their books at this time and would have to delay payment.


That news followed an earlier report in which Borders said a third party had lowered the value of its inventory in the event it had to sell the company or go out of business. That hurt Borders' ability to borrow and forced it into talks with senior credit facilities to refinance its debt.

[...]

Barnes and Noble, which even put itself up for sale, so far hasn't attracted any buyers other than possibly Borders. But then that would appear to be like the Hindenburg buying the Titanic.


Meanwhile both Borders and Barnes and Noble are closing stores. Borders is scheduled to close its downtown Portland store on January 7. The rest of the chain could be right behind.

Read the whole article for an interesting take on the situation that both bookstore chains find themselves in today. It appears that both chains are going to have to start liquidating some real estate holdings and closing down stores because of the rate at which in-store sales continue to drop.

I can't bring myself to take this as lightly as the article's writer seems to take it in his closing comments:

Studies show people with e-readers are reading more than they did before. I know that's true among the people I know who have them, and they love their iPads, Kindles and Nooks. Still, it's a little sad to see bookstores close, even though I never go there anymore.


I guess I just like to see them there when I drove by.

Those of us who continue to believe that e-books are a poor substitute for the real thing are losing ground every day. We are going to have to adapt to the new reality of the world of book-selling whether we want to or not.

(For those who might think I have my head in the sand when it comes to e-book readers, I will add that I have owned a Sony Reader for several years and that my iPad is loaded with software from Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and several other e-book publishers.  10 of the 125 books I read in 2010 were e-books and I do appreciate the convenience factor of reading that way - but e-books remain a poor substitute for reading from a physical book.)

Reading Resolutions for 2011

As I've learned during the past four years, I am really terrible about keeping reading resolutions and completing book challenges.  That's why I'm going to keep it simple going into 2011.  Proving how bad I am at keeping reading resolutions, the first one of the list for this new year is actually a repeat of one I first made (and failed at) in January 2008:

1.  Re-read the four books in Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove series in the real-time order in which they occur, not in the order they were published.  That means reading them in this sequence: Dead Man's Walk (the prequel that introduces McCrae and Call), Comanche Moon (the middle years), Lonesome Dove, and Streets of Laredo (covering McCrae's later years as a bounty hunter).

2.  Finally read Pat Conroy's Beach Music, a book I've owned since the week it was published and have still not read.  I tend to hold books of my favorite authors for a few months before reading them, sort of like saving some Halloween candy in reserve as a kid.  Through some weird fluke, I've been saving this one for almost 15 years - that's ridiculous.

3.  Much in the same vein as number 2, above, I plan to read last year's The Glass Rainbow (James Lee Burke) and This Body of Death (Elizabeth George).  I bought both those last year and set them aside for those perfect times during which I knew I could savor them; those times never happened.

4.  Finally read Toni Morrison's Beloved.  As I recall, I started this one several years ago but set it aside for some reason.  It's been laughing at me from the bookshelf ever since.

5.  Get my page-per-day average back up to 100 pages.  I slipped a little this year, coming in at almost 2,000 pages short of the number I hoped to read in 2010, leaving me at 95 pages a day for the year.

6.  Find time to read and re-read some of the classic literature I pretty much avoided during 2010.  There's no excuse now that all the classics can be downloaded in e-book format free of charge.  It's just too easy now...no more excuses.

7.  Participate in C.B.'s Western Read-a-long challenge in which all one has to do is read one western novel during the month of May.  Surely, this is one challenge I won't fail to complete...surely.

So there you have it.  Simple enough on the surface, but if my past track record is any indication, I will fail on at least two-thirds of even these.

Happy Birthday, J.D. Salinger

Cult author J.D. Salinger, had he not died this past January 27, would be 92 years old today.  The reclusive (Salinger's life define's the very word) writer is, of course, best known for his cult classic The Catcher in the Rye.  Whether Salinger decided to quit while he was on top or, perhaps, had little else to say, he published very little new material after his tremendous success with Catcher.  


Whichever the case, Salinger disliked the hoopla and attention associated with having written such a big book and even resorted to having his author picture removed from its later editions.  Much like his beloved character Holden Caulfield, Salinger withdrew from the pressures of a "phony" world. Caulfield ended up in a mental asylum and Salinger in a remote section of New Hampshire (where he still lived when he died on January 27, 2010).

Despite being one of the literature world's one-hit-wonders, Salinger succeeded in creating one of serious literature's most memorable characters in Holden Caulfield, a young man who became a symbol for disillusioned youth for more than one generation. Even today, The Catcher in the Rye is as often banned in high schools as it is required reading in others, a distinction almost certainly matched by few other books.  That the book can have an impact on young minds is beyond dispute, as evidenced by the fact that John Lennon's assassin (in 1980), Mark David Chapman, so eerily identified with Caulfield.   Chapman, in fact, did not even try to get away from the murder scene, deciding instead to wait there for authorities while he read from his copy of The Catcher in the Rye.

Personally, I have never quite understood the awe in which J.D. Salinger has been held for so many decades, but the impact of his novel cannot be denied.  It speaks to people of a certain age, and a particular frame-of-mind, in a powerful way.  One does have to wonder if Salinger's decision to transform himself into a modern hermit had as much to do with his lasting fame as anything else, however.  Had he continued to write and, almost certainly, produce lesser works than Catcher would he be the cult figure he is today?  We will never know, but perhaps now that he is gone, the world will get a look at what he was supposedly writing all those years while living in his self-exile.

Book Chase 2010 Year-End Statistics

Another year is done and I've managed to pull together some end-of-year numbers that reflect the kind of reading year 2010 was for me. I find that I was fairly consistent from month-to-month with my reading but that I had at least two "reading slumps" during which nothing really impressed me as being even remotely special.   I hate when that happens.  In fact, the same thing happened to me last year, further evidence, I believe, that the problem is one of my own "attitude" rather than of the quality of the books on hand.

This, according to the stats, was my year:

Number of Books Read - 125

Fiction - 90:
Novels - 84
Short Story Collections - 6

Nonfiction - 35:
Memoirs - 15
Biographies - 6
Literary Criticism - 3
Political Science - 3
Language Arts - 2
Sociology - 2
Sports - 2
Science - 1
True Crime - 1

Written by Men - 76
Written by Women - 45
Co-Authored by Both - 4

Audio Books - 13
E-Books - 10
Library Books - 41
Review Copies - 72
Started but Abandoned - 9

Author Nationality:
British - 10
Iranian - 2
Icelandic - 2
French - 1
Irish - 1
Spanish - 1
Canadian - 1
Australian - 1
American - 106

Length of Average Book Read in 2010 - 316 pages
Total Number of Pages Read (Excluding audio books) = 34,500+

Coming into the year, my rather vague goals included reading more international fiction, more nonfiction, more short story collections, more classic literature, and to read multiple books from a series or two. It appears that I failed miserably on all counts with the exception of short story collections. Next year's goals are going to be a bit different and I'll get into those in the next few days but I am convinced that I need to read fewer review copies in 2011. I love early-looks at books but I can see that I need to limit myself to three or four per month rather than the six or seven I have read each month during the last two years or so.

I'm excited about moving into the New Year and beginning the fifth year of Book Chase on January 20. Let's have some fun in 2011.

Top 10 Nonfiction of 2010

These are my ten favorite nonfiction books of the 35 books read in that category during 2010:

1.  George Washington: A Life - Ron Chernow - I would guess that most Americans do not even realize how little they know about George Washington.  Oh, sure, we all know that silly cherry tree story (an event that never happened) proving that Washington "could not tell a lie."  We know that he crossed the Delaware River on December 25, 1776, during the Revolutionary War because we are familiar with the historically inaccurate Emanuel Leutze painting from 1851 portraying that courageous decision.  We know about Washington's wooden teeth, or we think we do since that is another slightly bent story about our first president (the real story of Washington's dental problems is even more fascinating than the myth about his wooden teeth).

2.  My Reading Life - Pat Conroy - Pat Conroy fans, this one is for you.  Longtime readers of Conroy’s fiction have often wondered why so many years pass between new books, how much truth is really contained in his novels, how his family reacts about seeing themselves in his novels, and whether Conroy’s abuse at the hands of his father has had a long term impact on his head.  In My Reading Life, Conroy answers all of those questions – and many more.

3.  Lies My Mother Never Told Me - Kaylie Jones - Her father is James Jones, the National Book Award winner most famous for From Here to Eternity, the first book of his World War II trilogy that also includes The Thin Red Lineand Whistle. Her mother is Gloria Jones, an outrageously full of life woman so beautiful that she was once a Marilyn Monroe stand-in. Like her father, Kaylie Jones is a talented writer and she has spent a lifetime immersed in the literary world. Unfortunately, Jones also shares the alcoholism suffered by both her parents, a problem she addresses frankly in Lies My Mother Never Told Me: A Memoir. 

4.  War - Sebastian Junger - For a long time, I have been fascinated by the breed of reporter/writer so willing to put everything on the line in order to experience warfare alongside American soldiers. It is only from these brave and talented men and women that the rest of us get a decent picture of what is really happening out there and what our young soldiers are enduring for months on end. Sebastian Junger is one of the best of the breed. I am already a fan of Junger’s The Perfect Storm and A Death in Belmont, both of which are excellently written, but I do believe that War is his best effort yet.

5.  Bound to Last: 30 Writers on Their Most Cherished Book - Sean Manning, ed. - All of us, I suspect, have one or two favorite books on our shelves, books that we are as much emotionally attached to as anything else we own.  But, think about that for a second.  One’s favorite books, the ones carried around during a lifetime of relocations, are not necessarily favorites because of what is between their covers.  They are just as likely to be favorites because of all the memories attached to their acquisition, or where they were first read, or what family member owned them first, or because they were a gift from a favorite teacher, relative, or long lost friend.  As the back cover of Bound to Last puts it, we love this kind of book “because of its significance as a one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable object.”

6.  Mark Twain's Other Woman - Laura Skandera Trembley - During his lifetime, Mark Twain was arguably the most famous man in the world. As such, he was very conscious of the public image that guaranteed him a secure income stream on the lecture tour any time he needed to tap into it. And because Twain had a habit of losing money to unwise investment decisions, the money he earned from public appearances was crucial if he was to maintain the lifestyle to which he and his family had become so accustomed. Toward the end of his life, Mark Twain became increasingly concerned about how he would be remembered after his death, and he was determined that nothing would tarnish his image at that late date. He achieved that goal - until now.

7.  Man of Constant Sorrow - Ralph Stanley, Eddie Dean - When it comes to country music history, Ralph Stanley has pretty much seen it all. Now, at age 82, he has partnered with author Eddie Dean to share some of that with the rest of us. The book they co-authored, Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times, will, of course be especially appreciated by bluegrass fans, Stanley Brothers fans, and fans of the work Ralph has done since Carter’s death on December 1, 1966. Others, even those that are not fans of Stanley or of bluegrass music, will find the book to be a remarkable snapshot of a pivotal period in American music history, a time during which musicians like the Stanley Brothers earned their livings through live radio shows, relatively primitive recordings, and driving countless miles from one paying gig to the next.

8.  At Home: A Short History of Private Life - Bill Bryson - Readers who enjoyed Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything (in which he covered the world of science), are likely to be equally taken by At Home: A Short History of Private Life in which the author turns his attention to social history. At first glance, I feared that Bryson was going to do little more than wander from room to room of his home, explaining along the way the development of the form and function of each of the old house’s rooms. This 19th century-built home, a former parsonage located in rural England, certainly lends itself to that type of discussion. Luckily, however, Bryson had much more in mind for At Home.

9.  Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen - Jimmy McDonough - Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen is some kind of crazy cross between biography and author memoir. I call it crazy because, in theory, it should not work - but the craziest thing about it is how well it does work once the reader clicks to the book’s obvious slant. Author Jimmy McDonough idolizes Tammy Wynette and he is none too thrilled with those who so often made her life a living hell. While he recounts Wynette’s life in detail, McDonough is quick to offer his personal opinion about those details. He never hesitates to ridicule individual songs, hair styles, clothing, or album covers, for instance. McDonough wisely does not even attempt to portray himself as the impersonal biographer. Otherwise, the four or five personal “letters” to Wynette he places throughout the book would be even stranger than they already are. 

10.  Losing My Cool - Thomas Chatterton Williams - It is always easier for an outsider to be objective about an unfamiliar culture than it is for someone totally immersed in that same culture, especially when strict conformity to the accepted norm of the culture serves as a means of survival within it. I recognize, however, that an outsider brings his own baggage and bias into any discussion about a culture foreign to his eyes. And when it comes to the hip-hop culture that so completely dominates overall black culture today, especially the lives of its younger members, I am absolutely an outsider. But, as such, I have long wondered how, and why, American blacks have allowed their culture and their image as a people to be disgraced by something as shallow and destructive as hip-hop. In Losing My Cool, Thomas Chatterton Williams explores how the hip-hop culture came to dominate Black America and what needs to be done to counter its terrible influence on young people.


I am particularly pleased with the quality of the books on this year's Nonfiction Top 10 list.  I had hoped to read more nonfiction in 2010 than I read in 2009 but finished with only 35 nonfiction titles for the year.  Maybe I was just lucky; maybe I was more careful in my choices.  Whatever the reason, I think this is my strongest nonfiction Top 10 list in the four years I've been sharing here on Book Chase.  Check some of these out if you have the time - you won't be disappointed.