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Texts from Dog by Jones, October on 25/10/2012 unknown edition

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My dog sends me texts. Yeah. It’s weird. When October Jones figured out he could send text messages to himself on his mobile phone, he naturally decided that the best use of this discovery was to send passive-aggressive messages to himself under the guise of his bulldog. And so the exasperating, slightly delusional, and utterly endearing Dog and his alter-ego BatDog were born. Texts from Dog features Dog’s attempts to keep the neighborhood safe from the likes of Mr. Postman and his arch-nemesis Cat-Cat—he has managed to only smash three TVs and a patio door in the process. And in between crime fighting sprees and run-ins with the squirrel mafia, there are romantic interludes with pillows, fetch sessions gone terribly awry, and the abusive banter only a bromance between man and his text-savvy dog can spawn. For those of us who have ever had a conversation with a pet in our heads, Texts from Dog will make you laugh out loud and perhaps even make you think twice about leaving your pet home alone for the day.

Hardcover

First published October 25, 2012

34 people are currently reading
520 people want to read

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October Jones

18 books8 followers

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5 stars
477 (46%)
4 stars
307 (29%)
3 stars
161 (15%)
2 stars
49 (4%)
1 star
34 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
Profile Image for karen.
4,012 reviews172k followers
December 23, 2014
yes, it's true - i am reviewing ANOTHER one of these silly little humor books instead of the 10 other more serious littry books that i am supposed to be reviewing right now. (and by "serious littry," i simply mean that not one of them is monsterporn.) but it's been a rough week, and sometimes i just need a laugh and a braincation, and then i need to share that laughter with youse people, because the internet is my friend! so here i am. sharing.

like everything else in the humor section these days, this book started on the internet: http://textfromdog.tumblr.com/.

and in case you can't tell by the title of the book, the premise is that these are texts between an englishman and his bulldog, named "dog." there are maybe 200 or so texts in here, many of which are totally corny, but there were plenty that made me chuckle, and so i am sharing them with you. because that's almost like writing a review.

dog is mostly just your typical dog, except for the texting abilities. he likes to wake his owner up and break things and eat things and smell things, he hates the postman, he has a nemesis named "catcat" and his alter ego is "batdog." that's about all you need to know. just your typical, mischievous bulldog, causing trouble.

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this one might be my favorite, since i recently received a PM on here from a stranger, excoriating me for not using capital letters, despite their own letters being filled with misspellings and malapropisms. i am going to pretend my accuser was a dog, because that makes it less irritating.

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but dog manages to pay back the criticism several pages later, which is not how my own experience turned out.

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in short - a fun book, even if many of them are groan-worthy. and i promise i will get to those other 10 reviews soon-soon.
Profile Image for  Cookie M..
1,430 reviews161 followers
December 25, 2020
This was kind of cute for a while, then just fell back on the usual assortment of fart, poop and neutering jokes you would expect. Worth $.99.
Profile Image for Nicky.
4,138 reviews1,113 followers
November 14, 2012
This is about the level my brain is at, after four days of flu.

I wouldn't actually recommend buying this, since the tumblr account has all the same stuff, here. There are little illustrations and stuff but really, unless you're looking to buy it as a silly gift for someone with the right sense of humour.

But it did make me smile in spite of my flu, so it gets plenty of stars.
Profile Image for Crystal Navarro.
140 reviews31 followers
November 9, 2012
My boyfriend and I picked this up off the shelf at Barnes and Noble and stood there reading it and trying our hardest not to laugh out loud too much. I was literally in tears. Read the whole book in the store.

Definitely witty and ridiculous.
Profile Image for Christyn.
587 reviews23 followers
July 25, 2014
This book is pretty freaking hilarious. I loved it. I was smiling, laughing and enjoying it. Definitely a good book when you need something to smile about. It contains "text" conversations between a bulldog, "Dog" and his owner (or Butler as Dog is fond of referring to him - among other names). It has text messages ranging from the simple:


"Fetch the Stick.

No

Fetch the Stick

No

Fetch the Stick.

No

Fetch the Stick

NO

FETCH THE STICK

BUY A BOOMERANG DIPSHIT"


To the more elaborate:

"HAD A GO ON YOUR TREADMILL

Oh God

LEARNT A VALUABLE LESSON

FIRST RULE OF TREADMILL IS…

DO NOT STOP TO POO ON TREADMILL
"


There were also various texts about recurring themes; the postman, Dog's activities, Dog destroying shit, general randomness and of course the adventures of BatDog:

"Me and CATCAT did BATTLE in the garden

Ok

It was a CLASH OF THE TITANS

Right

AN ALL OUT WAR

Who won?

THERE ARE NO REAL VICTORS IN WAR

Got your ass kicked

Little bit"


What can I say, I'm easily amused - but I think this book really captures some of our canine companions everyday lives and what they may be thinking about (not to mention what they would be asking/talking/texting about if they could). There were a few scattered illustrations throughout the book that added to the charm. I absolutely adored it and it now holds a spot on my keeper shelf. It's hilarious, silly and fun what more could you ask for?

I will now leave you with a few more memorable conversations between Dog and his person.

"I WANT A DIVORCE

Thats not how our relationship works

I'M SICK OF YOUR SHIT

Right

I WANT MORE FROM LIFE

I've got pizza

I SUDDENLY LOVE YOU SO MUCH IT HURTS"


and

"Do you think I could be a police dog?

No

I don't think you've got the nerve for it.

WTF? My nerves are made of STEEL

Dude, you jump at the sound of your OWN FARTS

THEY SNEAK UP ON ME"


Can't forget the postman now can we?

"Postman's out cold.

HOW??

I TOOK HIM DOWN

FFS LEAVE HIM ALONE

I JUMPED OUT OF THE UPSTAIRS WINDOW

OH MY GOD

SHOUTED "IT'S RAINING BATDOG BITCH"

SAVED THE WORLD


YOU BELLY-FLOPPED A POSTMAN DICKHEAD"


Note: The Format for the text conversations didn't quite come out how I wanted it and I'm too lazy to do the indent but the Bold text is Dog's side of the conversation.
9 reviews
May 6, 2016

My book is made by October Jones. It 19s Fiction. The genre of the book is Fantasy Comedy. I chose to read this book because my peers recommended it and I really like comedy books. The book it about a dog writing texts to his human owner. The central character is the Dog (BullDog) and his owner (A Human) The character changes or evolves throughout the book by learning how to texts better. There is no really general plot unless you count the house which we really don't see.
The story made me laugh. The characters obviously didn 19t seem real but it was really funny. The story made me really think about how fun it would be to know what dogs are thinking about. As a conclusion I want to say that this book was a really great book and I would recommend a mature audience 12+ to read it
Profile Image for Sam.
3,439 reviews262 followers
January 2, 2013
This is a hysterical read and is really well thought out showing what would happen if your dog could text and the questions, queries and random thoughts that would appear in your inbox as a result. This is perfect for any dog owner and you will never look at your dog the same way again (I'm sure mine has some of these thoughts you know!).
Profile Image for Martha.
304 reviews4 followers
October 20, 2014
I needed this after a very stressful novel. I'm not a dog person (or a cat person) but this is hilarious. Well, most of it is hilarious. Like 90% of it. I think this would be a nice, quick read for anyone. It took me maybe 30-minutes to finish this so it might be good to read while waiting for the ... I dunno, rice to cook?
Profile Image for Laura.
819 reviews10 followers
July 3, 2014
Read this in one sitting. Cute text messages sent between dog and owner. I really liked the book and several times went to go read some of this out loud to my parents (I am 10 yrs old) I recommend it!
Profile Image for Mandy Crumb.
671 reviews1 follower
January 11, 2022
Parenting fail with this one. I thought it was going to be family friendly fun so I passed it over to my young kids. 100% not child appropriate! Now have two kids asking what a donkey scrotum is thanks to October Jones.
Profile Image for Amy Pezzuolo.
6 reviews1 follower
December 19, 2012
This was the perfect pick me up! Hilarious, thoughtless, enjoyable reading at its finest. Must have a sense of humor and tolerance for vulgar language... But very relatable in a unique way.
Profile Image for Darren.
900 reviews9 followers
August 6, 2017
Very funny. Both dog and owner need their mouths washed out with soap.
Profile Image for Venessa Stella.
144 reviews16 followers
January 4, 2020
Lustig zum Lesen für zwischendurch. Ich hoffe dass mein Hund später aber nicht so gemein zu mir ist 😂
225 reviews6 followers
June 30, 2022
OMG! I laughed out loud at most of this!
Profile Image for Meep.
2,167 reviews227 followers
July 27, 2014
Hysterical some great giggles here for any dog-owner.
Dog has attitude - and a mobile for texting.
650 reviews8 followers
May 15, 2017
Quite a few great ideas have made the transition from the internet into book form. Many of them are quite hilarious on the internet, particularly when they pop up every so often, but just don’t work out nearly so well when published all together in a book. Mil Millington’s “Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About” was one such internet sensation that didn’t translate well into novel form and, sadly, October Jones’ “Texts From Dog” is another.

It’s a fantastic idea, about what a dog would text to an owner if it could text. As dog owners might predict, many of the texts involve chasing balls or sticks, eating and breaking things and either barking at or chasing other people and animals, most commonly the postman and a local cat and squirrels. It’s interesting to see a dog’s perspective on these things and particularly what a dog might think of its owner, which is rarely complimentary unless there is food or a bowl involved.

However, it is when the texts branch away from standard dog behaviour that the texts are at their funniest. When dog pulls a curtain rail down to use as a cape and becomes Batdog, to start battling his enemy Catcat, this is generally quite funny. There are also moments of fine observational humour, such as when dog drinks some Red Bull, which is brilliantly described and the moment where he gets into trouble with the police or decides to leave a game of fetch part way through.

Sadly, there is a lack of consistency in the approach, as dog is sometimes brilliant at seeing through his owner’s plans, but is more frequently portrayed as a dog without much of what we would recognise as human intelligence. There are also moments where dog’s opinions of his owner are that he is a complete idiot, but at other times, he treats him something akin to a butler, which seems more akin to cat behaviour towards humans than dog behaviour. Occasionally, these contrasts will occur on the same double page spread and the inconsistency is a little confusing and shows how reading occasional texts on an internet page works better than reading a lot together in a book.

Whilst the content is generally quite good fun, the way it’s been put together in this book is a bit of a let-down. Three of the texts are repeated, which is a shame when there are only around 200 in here to start with and some of them aren’t in the right order, meaning that an event referred to early in the book only makes sense when you get to the corresponding earlier events later in the book. The cartoons are also amusing, but in a book where there are only 2 texts – the main content of the book – to a page, removing one of them to replace it with a drawing that doesn’t shine any light on the text, feels like space filling.

There are moments of great amusement here, but these are not consistent enough to make for a great book. “Texts From Dog” is something worth looking out for, but not in this format, when it is available for free in a format which actually makes it more fun.
Profile Image for Maddie.
24 reviews1 follower
February 16, 2023
Was passiert, wenn dein Hund plötzlich ein Smartphone hat und dich die ganze Zeit mit Nachrichten zutextet? Einige Nachrichten waren wirklich unterhaltsam und jeder Hundebesitzer kann sie nachvollziehen, andere wiederum waren so unter der Gürtellinie und total daneben das man eher nur mit dem Kopf schütteln anstatt lachen konnte.
Profile Image for Robert Pierson.
424 reviews4 followers
May 18, 2024
I was in a reading slump Doodoo work been absolutely crazy so I thought I’d pick up some thing simple and goofy and silly as a dog owner I can relate to some of The jokes though After about a couple of them it just gets really boring really repetitive really quick there might be some people out there who find this amusing I just found it boring after a while.
Profile Image for Scott Coffman.
47 reviews
June 9, 2021
Amusing, irreverent one-sitting read consisting entirely of texts between an English bulldog and his owner. May need to brush up on your British slang a bit. Makes me wonder what kind of conversations my cats would have if they could text.
Profile Image for Becky Loader.
2,189 reviews28 followers
May 22, 2017
Clever, but not as clever as my dog would be at texting. ;-)
4 reviews
May 23, 2018
Funny

That BATDOG is something else! Funny content of things I would think a dog would want to talk about. Can’t wait for the next edition.
52 reviews
July 20, 2018
Dog thoughts

I’ve had dogs for a long time and really got a kick out of this book. It is just as silly as I believe my dogs to be.
Profile Image for Amy.
1,236 reviews74 followers
April 11, 2019
Wasn't as entertaining as I'd hoped it would be. Still, there were a few funny ones I hadn't seen before.
8 reviews
April 19, 2019
Very Funny, Dilbert for Dogs

Very enjoyable, light-hearted, funny. But just don't expect a uniform plot. It's from a dog for goodness sake! Did I say it was funny?
Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews

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