Chewed by Arne Svenson
My rating: 5/5 cats
oh my god—my new favorite book!! i know—i get excited about books on here an awful lot. i have an excitable nature, to be sure. but do you understand? this is a book of photographs of stuffed animals and other toys that have been loved and chewed up by dogs.
“really?? and people pay money for this??,” you scoff.
not yet, but they will.
why is this book awesome, isn’t it just photos of trash, basically?? well, yeah, to the untrained eye. but when you see these adorable stuffed animals still smiling through their torn-off ears and their raggedy arms and their split tummies—there is something mournfully brave in this.
even without their eyes they are rugged and ragged and loyal. they are still cute—like little battered creatures still holding out their arms for hugs.
too bad dogs don’t hug.
this book reminds me of Dirty Wow Wow and Other Love Stories: A Tribute to the Threadbare Companions of Childhood, which is a photographic study of people’s beat up and beloved childhood stuffed animals (and which i just found out now, has a canine companion: Dirty Bow Wow, which i must pick up). i have plenty of stuffed animals, but i have no dog. i do have a cat, and when these people start doing open calls for “things my cat has thrown up upon” i will have plenty of photographs to contribute. although i predict that book will be less attractive and will sell fewer copies.
i am kind of too lazy and full of food right now to add pictures to this review (and i know how you people need pictures to hold your interest) but tomorrow maybe i will share some photos from this book so you understand why my love is so strong.
but for now, enjoy your sunday evening.
read my book reviews on goodreads
