Just came across this John Updike poem. Who will do it again, indeed.

Perfection Wasted

And another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
which took a whole life to develop and market -
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest
the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched
in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,
their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,
their response and your performance twinned.
The jokes over the phone. The memories packed
in the rapid-access file. The whole act.
Who will do it again? That’s it; no one;
imitators and descendants aren’t the same.

Yesterday I received an email from a young mother who wanted to know the names of some of my favorite books. I am often asked this, so have decided to compile an abbreviated list.

This past summer, when we were in Nantucket, I blogged about Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and even posted a very erotic passage from this masterpiece. If I see a copy of Moby Dick lying around, anywhere, I am compelled to pick it up and look up some of my favorite passages. I can almost feel where they are with my hands when I start leafing through the book, I’ve read the chapters so many times. Another book that I compulsively reread is Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome. I read it during the first chilly night of fall, pretty much every fall. I guess I’m drawn to books about New England

I’ve also mentioned Don Delillo’s White Noise on this blog.

My friend Dani turned me onto the book Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates years before it was made into the movie and it was instantly a new favorite. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, or even if you have – read the book. So great. Check out Dani’s books too – also great!

The Collected Short Stories of John Cheever. Have read each and every one over and over again.

The John Updike Rabbit series, as well as so many of his short stories.

Martin Amis’s Money is a very funny book, though I read it so long ago, I’m not sure how I would like it now. Thought it was genius when I was twenty-four.

I love the stories of James Joyce and for some reason Joyce is another author I like to read on winter nights.

I think I’ve read everything Joan Didion has written. Start with Slouching Towards Bethlehem, a collection of essays she wrote in the 60s. I think I first thought I’d like to be a writer after reading this book.

Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd, is far better than any of his other books, in my opinion. I just adore this book.

Years ago, my friend Heather turned me onto Betty MacDonald, who wrote a best seller in the 1940s called, The Egg and I. It’s one of the funniest books I’ve ever read and I’ve since read all of her books. There’s one she wrote about her years living with her eccentric family in Seattle during the depression called Anybody Can Do Anything. This is a book I highly recommend for anyone going through hard times right now. Betty MacDonald is one person I wish I knew when she was alive. Once you read any one of her books, you’ll understand why. When I’m sad I almost instinctively reach for one of her books. Also, check out Heather’s books. Her books are wonderful, autobiographical and funny as well.

I just read Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. Very beautiful.

My favorite books growing up were ALL about animals, but many of them were really great books. Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, All the Black Stallion books. The Misty of Chincoteague books, Lassie Come Home. Seriously, if you’ve never read Lassie Come Home, there’s a giant hole in your life. Read it now. If you have a kid, read it to him/her. It was written decades before the American series and is set in Scotland. Of course, all the James Herriott books. And the all-time classic – I can barely manage to type the letters of the title without slumping over my keyboard in wracking sobs – Sounder.

I was also very into John Steinbeck and Jack London as a kid. Loved The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden.. I was also weirdly crazy about Charles Dickens books when I was a teenager. Seriously, When my friends had to read David Copperfield or A Tale of Two Cities in high school, and they didn’t want to, I’d tell them everything, chapter by chapter, meanwhile not doing any of my own assigned work.

I almost forgot Mark Twain! But not so much his classics Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I really loved his humorous essays and anyone planning a trip to Europe or the Middle East should really read Innocents Abroad, from which I borrowed the title of my first book, An Innocent, A Broad.

I was recently thinking about popular commercial novels I liked as a kid and wonder if anyone remembers these titles: Of course The Outsiders. Also, My Darling, My Hamburger, Mr. and Mrs. BoJo Jones. The Summer of the Swans, Lisa, Bright and Dark (sort of the poor man’s Bell Jar).

Okay, I’ll stop there. I’m sure I’ll think of others. Would love to hear some of your favorites.

By the way, the photo above is of a foreign translation of what we think was Denis’s book, No Cure For Cancer. And, of course, that’s Tim next to it.

Less dogs on blog? I just realized that this whole month has been almost exclusively about dogs. But Mary L just sent this and I had to post it.

The Headline is: The Winner Of Dog Obedience School

John Updike, one of my favorite writers is dead, which makes me sad. Here is a poem:

Saying Goodbye to Very Young Children
BY JOHN UPDIKE

They will not be the same next time. The sayings
so cute, just slightly off, will be corrected.
Their eyes will be more skeptical, plugged in
the more securely to the worldly buzz
of television, alphabet, and street talk,
culture polluting their gazes’ pure blue.
It makes you see at last the value of
those boring aunts and neighbors (their smells
of summer sweat and cigarettes, their faces
like shapes of sky between shade-giving leaves)
who knew you from the start, when you were zero,
cooing their nothings before you could be bored
or knew a name, not even your own, or how
this world brave with hellos turns all goodbye.

My sister-in-law Betsy just sent me this picture. I hope she doesn’t mind me posting it here. It’s Denis’s cousin Noreen, his sister Ann-Marie, and himself, looking a little glum. I wonder if he got that robe instead of the Beatles guitar he asked for.

As my faithful blog readers can attest, visiting this site each day can be like watching grass grow. I just don’t do a lot of exciting stuff, especially when I’m working on a book, as I have been doing. But this week has been action packed.

Today, we had a photo shoot here at our home because Denis and I, along with Daphne, Coco and Lulu will be gracing the cover of American Dog Magazine this spring! That’s right, the cover of American Dog Magazine.

Gonna see my picture on the cover/ Gonna send five copies to my mother/ Gonna see my smiling face on the cover of American Dog!

It’s this very cool new dog/lifestyle mag. Heather Green is a great photographer and took some amazing shots. My friend Leah took some shots of the photo shoot.

Here are the publisher and NY Post columnist Julia Szabo, Heather Green and stylist Lena An setting up the shot in our living room:

And here are two humans and three dogs trying to look good at once:

The dogs were very put out by the whole thing. I was surprised by their lack of enthusiasm. It seemed to be their nap time and we spent a lot of time jostling them into standing and sitting positions. I saw some of the shots Heather took and they looked very nice – no offense Leah!

Okay, I just found this link to Oprah’s site, which incorrectly states that Daphne’s name is “Jackie!” Here’s a still from the interview. Have no idea how to download the video.

Thanks to all who watched us. If you’ve read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, go on Oprah.com and register for the Monday night live webcast. I have no idea what to expect, but am thrilled to be a part of it.

I’ve had some emails and comments about Daphne.

She’s going to be participating in the Edgar Sawtelle discussion on Monday as well. She’s a Labradoodle, for those who were wondering. She’s resting up for Monday night.

You know how Denis was on Oprah last Friday? Well, guess who’s going to be on this Friday?

ME!

Not just me, but also Daphne,

and Coco!

We will be skyping in to talk about the book, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Oprah is doing a huge Oprah’s Book Club webcast event on Monday, January 26th at 9:00 pm (EST) about David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle., and I’ll be skyping in for that as well!
Today, I did a pre-interview with a very nice producer named Denise. She asked me if I’d like to do these skype appearances and I said, “I would LOVE to do skype on Oprah!” while madly googling the term “skype” on my laptop. Honestly, if I learned that skyping was another word for stripping, I would have been game.

So on Friday, I will skype on the show and on Monday night I’ll be involved in this very exciting webcast. I know a lot of my blog readers are dog fanciers and if you haven’t read Edgar Sawtelle, read it this weekend so you can join in the event on Oprah.com.

I have quite a few things going on right now and have been up since 4:30 working. As a result, I have little blog time. So, I’ve resorted, for subject matter, to my old standby. Our dogs.

Our dogs love, more than anything else, to travel. They don’t care where they’re going, they just like to go. Here’s Lulu enjoying a ride to the vet.

Here she is coming home, recovering from the trauma of vaccinations:

If I’m going someplace, the dogs often manage to jump in the car. Then, if I’m not planning to bring them, I will call them out. They ignore me and stare straight ahead.

They become, suddenly deaf. They just stare at the windshield. “We’re ready,” they’re saying. “Let’s go.” Then I must drag them out of the car.

Now I must get back to work. Will report later about all the exciting goings-on.

I don’t think I’ve ever asked God to bless anyone before (well, maybe my babies, silently, when I tucked them in at night), but God bless Barack Obama!

On Journeys Through the States
by: Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

On journeys through the States we start,
(Ay through the world, urged by these songs,
Sailing henceforth to every land, to every sea,)
We willing learners of all, teachers of all, and lovers of all.
We have watch’d the seasons dispensing themselves and passing on,
And have said, Why should not a man or woman do as much as the
seasons, and effuse as much?
We dwell a while in every city and town,
We pass through Kanada, the North-east, the vast valley of the
Mississippi, and the Southern States,
We confer on equal terms with each of the States,
We make trial of ourselves and invite men and women to hear,
We say to ourselves, Remember, fear not, be candid, promulge the
body and the soul,
Dwell a while and pass on, be copious, temperate, chaste, magnetic,
And what you effuse may then return as the seasons return,
And may be just as much as the seasons.