Rabid: Are You Crazy About Your Dog or Just Crazy?

by Pamela Redmond Satran

Dogs now dominate the $55 billion a year pet business, with nearly 40 percent of American households owning a total of 78.2 million dogs. Dog products, dog services, dog admiration--okay, let's call it dog worship--has become totally over the top, with doggie treadmills, dog swimming pools, caffeine-free doggie java, dog massage, dog perfume, aromatherapy, hair coloring, and, yes, dog tattoos that would have seemed outlandish a generation ago when applied to your everyday household Rover. But Rover isn't called Rover he's called Rufus. Or Lola, according to the Tumblog Hipster Puppies. In fact, all Top Ten Dog Names are people names. And the canine Rufus doesn't stay home alone all day; he goes to Doggie Daycare. Eats brightly frosted martini-shaped doggie treats. Wears designer tutus. Gets married on the beach. Has... Well, you'll see. With hilarious full-color photos throughout, Rabid holds a humorous mirror up to our dog-centered society, helping us laugh at our own behavior and at the even-more-insane antics of all those other dog people.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Dogs, Sociology

176 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Pamela Redmond Satran is the author of 20 books, both fiction and non-fiction. Her most recent novel, The Possibility of You, is written as Pamela Redmond and published by Simon & Schuster's Gallery Books. A New York Times bestselling humor writer, she has a new humor book, Rabid: Are You Crazy About Your Dog or Just Crazy?, due out from Bloomsbury in September 2012. She is the creator with Linda Rosenkrantz of the million-visitor website Nameberry, based on the 10 books on baby names they coauthored. Satran also writes The Glamour List column and contributes to The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast.

Reviews

[Penelope · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is obviously meant to be light, funny, cute, and full of trivia. I guess it is all of those things, but it wasn't always fun to read. I skipped a few parts because they were poorly designed and boring. I'm referring specifically to the various "timelines" in a few of the chapters, which are basically just zig-zag lines that take up entire pages and track a series of thematically-related events chronologically. A few pieces of historical trivia are cool, but I'm not going to read a 4-page timeline. Frankly, it just looks lazy and it's not easy to read all those disjointed sentences zigging and zagging across the page. I also thought the little multiple choice "quizzes" were kind of silly (especially when the answer was always "c" or what ever...what was the point of putting it in quiz form?).

I agree with another reviewer who said the book seemed like a magazine article. The author even casually mentions at one point (when describing dog-related publications) that the theme of this book would make a great magazine. I sort of agree. This book might have been better as a magazine.

Regardless, I did find some of the info funny/interesting. The librarian in me kind of seethed at the complete lack of credit for products and images, though. The author mentions a lot of various products for dogs but almost never tells you where those products came from, which I think is lame...and I'm not quite sure what the benefit is of leaving out the product info/credit.

Anyway. This was somewhat amusing bed-time reading. Might be a funny gag-gift for the dog-lover in your life. But I wouldn't really go out of my way to read it.

[Janelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could say I loved this book, but it just didn't "do it" for me. I am the crazy dog owner who takes her dog to the spa and buys the expensive items, but the book wasn't wonderful. I didn't connect with the ideas at all. The books lacks the flow it needs. It (at least to me) seemed to read like a magazine artice. There were plenty of opportunites to have fun with this topic, but I never laughed while reading it.

[Christine D · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was cute, for all dog lovers but particularly for small dog lovers. For big dog people this book isn't that interesting. Silly pictures, cute anecdotes, a few websites to check out but overall, it was ok

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute fun book for dog lovers that has little snippets of facts merged with a wild imagination. This is not a story and could be read in multiple sittings for those who are super busy. The book is short though so it can be easily read over a lunch break.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda cute, but nothing outstanding.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book about the strange things people do to their dogs. Dress them up, marry them, write them into their will, etc. Will amuse dog lovers and those who tolerate dogs.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny read on pets, their owners, and the pet business. If you have a dog for a pet you will enjoy this book.

[Riccol · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bathroom book. As in, won't kill you to flip through it if it happens to be there in front of you, but not something you want to go out of your way to read.

[Deanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book. Some of the stories as just outrageous though. Some hard to believe. Good laugh though

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little too snarky and completely lacking sources. Meh.