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wordsandnocturnes's reviews
441 reviews
Ordinary Dogs by Eileen Battersby
One of the reasons Ordinary Dogs attracted my attention was because she had named her dogs Bilbo and Frodo. As a person who highly enjoyed Tolkien's works, I could not resist and picked up this memoir. I hoped it would be fun and adorable. A story full of the author's love for her dogs, perhaps as a bonus, it would have a few references to Tolkien in here.
Ordinary Dogs did live up to my expectations in a way. It was a memoir about how the author really loved her dogs. The best thing about the book, I would say, is the love. It felt so real and it does make one reflect on their love for their pets. Battersby’s simple life is punctuated with chaotic occurrences of which the dogs are the main stars. It is an extremely engaging book, and invites the reader to continue reading on to see what happens next to these ordinary dogs in their extraordinary lives.
Bilbo and Frodo were wonderful dogs. Their personalities greatly differ, and it is captured in great detail in the book. I came to love these dogs as I read this book, and the ending, although predictable, still manages to feel like a stab for me. It was a truly miserable ending, and one can almost feel the author’s pain from the words of the book.
Battersby does keep insisting that she is a nerd, almost defensively, as if the reader would doubt and snatch her nerd cred away from her. I, for one, do not doubt her nerd cred, so I would have been more appeased if there were slightly less insisting. There was another slight problem with the book, and that was the times kept jumping about. First it is June, then suddenly without warning, it is 3 months ago. A paragraph later, it would be 2 weeks later in June. It got a bit confusing, but I found out if you turn a blind eye to these times, and just keep reading, it does not become a bother.
Ordinary Dogs is a nice book that reads wonderfully when you are snuggling up for a cosy read. The writing is engaging, the characters are lovable, and the whole book feels heavy with nostalgia, or maybe it is just the weight of the memories that makes it a book worth reading.
3.0
Sunlight streamed into the room, the sky had brightened and the rain had finally stopped. Only now it didn’t matter.
One of the reasons Ordinary Dogs attracted my attention was because she had named her dogs Bilbo and Frodo. As a person who highly enjoyed Tolkien's works, I could not resist and picked up this memoir. I hoped it would be fun and adorable. A story full of the author's love for her dogs, perhaps as a bonus, it would have a few references to Tolkien in here.
Ordinary Dogs did live up to my expectations in a way. It was a memoir about how the author really loved her dogs. The best thing about the book, I would say, is the love. It felt so real and it does make one reflect on their love for their pets. Battersby’s simple life is punctuated with chaotic occurrences of which the dogs are the main stars. It is an extremely engaging book, and invites the reader to continue reading on to see what happens next to these ordinary dogs in their extraordinary lives.
Bilbo and Frodo were wonderful dogs. Their personalities greatly differ, and it is captured in great detail in the book. I came to love these dogs as I read this book, and the ending, although predictable, still manages to feel like a stab for me. It was a truly miserable ending, and one can almost feel the author’s pain from the words of the book.
Battersby does keep insisting that she is a nerd, almost defensively, as if the reader would doubt and snatch her nerd cred away from her. I, for one, do not doubt her nerd cred, so I would have been more appeased if there were slightly less insisting. There was another slight problem with the book, and that was the times kept jumping about. First it is June, then suddenly without warning, it is 3 months ago. A paragraph later, it would be 2 weeks later in June. It got a bit confusing, but I found out if you turn a blind eye to these times, and just keep reading, it does not become a bother.
Ordinary Dogs is a nice book that reads wonderfully when you are snuggling up for a cosy read. The writing is engaging, the characters are lovable, and the whole book feels heavy with nostalgia, or maybe it is just the weight of the memories that makes it a book worth reading.