It was the Monday night before the Tuesday when our cleaners come, and I was once again contemplating the three tall piles of books on top of the bookshelves next to the bed. They are starting to lean precariously and pose a danger in the case of even a small earthquake. Really; I’m not exaggerating. Until that Monday night, there were about 60 books there, representing a bit more than a year’s worth of reading. I’ve just plumb run out of room on the five sets of shelves downstairs.

As I went through the books, reliving the joy or disappointment of each I noticed that a goodly portion — about a dozen — were about dogs or featured dogs in prominent roles.

I’m a dog lover, especially of our own four-legged family member, Katie. She’s nearing 16, a lab and something mix. She’s deaf, arthritic, and losing her sight. But she’s still happy and healthy enough that her vet refers to her as the Energizer Doggy. But my love of animals doesn’t really influence my reading habits, and hasn’t since my son outgrew the William Wegman kid’s books. Still, when I look at this pile of dog books in front of me, I’m mostly happy with them. They were largely great reads, and a couple of them were spectacular. Here’s a run-down, not necessarily in the order I read them.

• Merle’s Door, by Ted Kerasote, tells the story of one man’s relationship with a stray dog he adopts and how his views of dogs and animal behavior change over the course of the dog’s life. It’s both entertaining and educational and was one of the best of the dog bunch. I often irritated husband by reading sections out loud in the wee hours when he was trying to sleep.
• Dog is My Co-Pilot and Howl, are both brought to you by the publishers of Bark magazine. Like the magazine itself, the books are chock-full of great writing by the likes of Alice Walker, Ann Patchett, Dave Barry and Al Franken.
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein is written from the point of view of Enzo, a dog in the twilight of his life who is reflecting on his role in keeping a family together. Despite the main voice being a dog, it’s not stupid at all and it rates near the top of the dog pile.
• Another much older book told in the voice of a dog is The Dark Gentleman by GB Stern, an English writer from the 1930s and 1940s who’s work is no longer widely known — which is sad, because she wrote some great stuff, like The Matriarch and was quite popular in her time. She wrote films, plays, novels, and a couple of interesting memoirs. Her effort in The Dark Gentleman wasn’t as successful as Mr. Stein’s, but that could just be that I didn’t get all the comedic references related to time and place. It was still an amusing read.
• Michelle de Kretser’s Australian story, The Lost Dog, isn’t really about a dog as much as it’s about outsiders fitting in. But a dog does feature as a way of bringing people together. I liked it.
• The saddest and most touching of the lot was Mostly Bob by Tom Corwin. It’s based on an email he sent out to friends when his dog Bob died. It tells the story of Bob from the time he was adopted from an abusive owner and his transformation from scared and vicious to best friend.
• A Good Dog: The Story of Orson, by Jon Katz, is another story of an individual dog’s redemption. It’s also a warning to all those who like the idea of having a smart breed for a dog but don’t give that dog a job. Smart dogs need something to do or they’ll find something, usually that you don’t want them to do. Katz also wrote A Dog Year, which is the story of how Katz brought two more dogs into the family. Both of the books are entertaining, but I wouldn’t call either of them literature.
• Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas is the touching story of a woman whose marriage is changed forever when her husband suffers a traumatic brain injury. More about her learning to cope with her new life than the dogs who help her get through each day, it’s a great memoir.
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski is a big long book, the story of a boy who can’t speak who helps his parents raise a fictional breed of dog. An homage to Hamlet, the book is stunningly written, beautifully visualized, and a gripping story. I didn’t like the ending, though.
• I suppose I have to mention Marley and Me by John Grogan. It was a delightful read when it came out a couple years ago. I passed it on to a friend. My favorite part is the description of scooping poop in Marley’s Florida backyard, a task made easy by the presence of a mango tree. Marley loved to eat the fallen mangoes, rendering his poop fluorescent orange. I don’t know if I’ll go see the movie that’s coming out next week. I have fond memories of that easy, happy read and I don’t want to ruin them.

It will be interesting to see if the coming year shows any themes in my reading — aside from reading whatever my son does (he’s pubescent: it gives us something to talk about if I read Eragon when he does; I sometimes even get multi-word sentences out of him.)

My bedside table is nearly bereft of books right now, although I did order up the Twilight series. I don’t have the excuse of having a daughter I want to bond with by reading it with her. I was just curious. I read the first one in two days and I’m sure the remaining three will be dispatched in a similar time frame. I’m happy that Chanukah is on the way. I know that someone will get me a book or two from my reading wish list. Now all I need is somewhere to put them.