Books, books, books…

A client mentioned a book to me the other day during a difficult time for them (see below) and then actually went through the effort of going and buying a copy and bringing it in for me to read. It was a very nice read and a very poignant story. I told my lovely wife that she needed to read it as well, but she told me that she didn’t want to read a book that was going to make her cry. Yes, it will make you cry. However this got me to thinking about what the favourite animal-based books were of the other veterinarians on staff here. So I asked them.

Here is a list:

Books about animals:

Any and all of the James Herriot stories – beloved by all future veterinarians of my generation. Written by a practicing veterinarian named Alf White in rural Yorkshire, these books span the time from the late 1930s through to the early 1950s. They are wonderful heart-warming stories about rural life, veterinary medicine in the 40s, people, their pets and farm animals.

“The Art of Racing In The Rain” – by Garth Stein. Life from the viewpoint of one of our wonderful furry life-companions. Recommended by clients of ours as we helped ease their beloved pet from this life into the next. Dr. Sage also recommends this book as her most favourite.

Favourites of the renowned cat lover Dr. Gilchrist include; “Cats I Have Known and Loved” by Pierre Berton, “All My Patients are Under the Bed” by Louis Camuti and “Cats In The Sun” by Hans Silvester. She also loved all of the James Herriot books of course (being from “my generation”).

Dr. Sage has a number of books she also loves; “The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime” by Mark Haddon, “Marley and Me” by John Grogan, “The Joe Grey Mysteries” by Shirley Rousseau Murphy (includes “Cat Breaking Free”, “Cat Cross Their Graves”…) and “Reigning Cats and Dogs Mystery Series” by Cynthia Baxter.

Dr. Wernham was a huge fan of the James Herriot books as well as a very special children’s series called “The Silver Brumby” books.

Non-animal-oriented interesting reads:

“Ready Player One” – by Ernest Cline. For the geeks out there around my age (late 40s) a story about the video arcades and our teen-age years and all of those wondrous early computer games. I never actually made it past the white house in the woods, I kept trying to go into the cave and getting killed by the Gru. If you understand that last statement you MUST read this book.

Dr. Mike Steen
February, 2013