![\"IMG_0653\"](\"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/IMG_0653.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt’s a bit strange, but my favourite genre for books is ‘animals that talk’. I read a lot of books which involve talking animals. A lot. And I have since I was a little kid.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I scour the shelves in book and opportunity stores. A few years ago, I chanced upon a book called The Plague Dogs<\/a><\/em>\u00a0in an opportunity shop.<\/p>\n It was by Richard Adams, the author of Watership Down<\/a><\/em>. You know, the wildly successful book and movie with talking rabbits? But, instead, it was a book with talking dogs! I purchased the book without hesitation. Dogs that talk! My favourite!<\/p>\n This book took me a while to get through. It’s a heavy and slow-going read. I was on the bus to work when I got to the last 50 pages or so. Ecstatic, I knew I’d finish it on the bus ride home.<\/p>\n As I hopped on the bus on the way home, I encountered a problem. My book was not in my bag. Coincidentally, my work had just moved office buildings, and that was my last day at the ‘old building’. I rang the bus company and my book was nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n How could I finish the last pages of a book published well over 30 years ago?<\/p>\n Luckily, one of my dog friends had a copy and I borrowed the book to read the last 50 pages. And I finally finished the book!<\/p>\n Why did I tell you this story?<\/p>\n Because it’s about a million times more interesting than the book.<\/p>\n Okay, so that’s a little harsh… But it’s also a lot true. This book took me about 18 months to read because it was so terribly boring. I am not a slow reader (I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows<\/em><\/a> in about 5 hours). It was just so slow that I didn’t want to read it.<\/p>\n In it’s time,\u00a0The Plague Dogs<\/em> was probably quite revealing. It queries the ethics of experimentation on animals. However, in 2013, it is less of a mystery when it comes to what happens to animals in research centres, and the ethicalness of such a practice is publicly questioned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’m not one for writing negative reviews, so I thought I’d condense this one and give you two books not to read at once. All the negativity in one hit. It’s all the efficiency in writing that\u00a0The Plague Dogs<\/em> lacks! I can absolutely say that this book was an engaging and interesting read, and a book I enjoyed reading.<\/p>\n When I was in primary school, during creative writing, we were not allowed to finish our stories with, “I woke up and it was all a dream”. I think this is an important memo that the author missed. No, it doesn’t end quite that way, but it still an incredibly unsatisfactory finish.<\/p>\n While this book was an enjoyable read, I felt like the book was taking me to a far better place. As I got to the last pages, I was thinking to myself, “Wow, this has only this much to go? How is it going to end?”<\/p>\n The answer? Really dumbly.<\/p>\n So it’s cool for you to read this book and it won’t take you long, but it’s probably not going to be a particularly gratifying experience once you get to the end and feel like the author gypped you of a satisfying conclusion.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But in the interests of impartiality…<\/em><\/p>\n Maybe I’m a grump, because Goodreads and Amazon reviews are much more complimentary for these two books.\u00a0The Plague Dogs<\/em>\u00a0has\u00a04 stars on Amazon<\/a>\u00a0and \u00a04 stars on Goodreads<\/a>\u00a0(out of 5).Timbuktu<\/em>\u00a0has 3.5 stars on Amazon<\/a> and 4 stars on Goodreads<\/a> (out of 5). <\/p>\n Have you read these books? Did either book tickle your fancy?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Further reading:<\/em>\u00a0For a book I actually liked, see my reviews on\u00a0A Dog’s Purpose<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0A Puppy Called Aero<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I didn’t like the book “The Plague Dogs” by Richard Adams, nor the book “Timbuktu” by Paul Auster. Read all about it and save yourself the dissatisfaction of reading either book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[225],"tags":[952,215,286,216,958,682,956,957,951,954,955,953,950],"class_list":["post-3911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","tag-auster","tag-book","tag-book-review-2","tag-books","tag-dog-books","tag-fiction","tag-fiction-books","tag-fiction-dog-books","tag-paul-auster","tag-plague-dogs","tag-richard-adams","tag-the-plague-dogs","tag-timbuktu"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3911"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4705,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911\/revisions\/4705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Timbuktu](\"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/IMG_1032.jpg\")
Timbuktu<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n