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| Mostly Bob | 
 enlarge | Author: Tom Corwin
Publisher: New World Library
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $1.65
You Save: $11.30 (87%)
New (43) Used (23) Collectible (1) from $1.65
Avg. Customer Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 272749
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.1 x 4 x 1
ISBN: 1577315251
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.7527
EAN: 9781577315254
ASIN: 1577315251
Publication Date: January 12, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Standard used condition.
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Product Description
When Tom Corwin’s golden retriever, Bob, passed away unexpectedly, Tom decided to write a letter as a tribute to his life. The letter told Bob’s many human friends what they might not have known — the surprising story of how he was once a ferocious, untrusting dog named Red, and how through sheer determination he changed completely to become Tom’s best friend. Tom began receiving an outpouring of heartfelt responses to what he came to realize was actually a universal tale about the possibility of change and the transformational power of love. Friends and strangers urged him to bring the story to more people, and with a vision of how it might look, Tom designed this special book version of the letter. With a total of just more than one thousand words, this poignant story reads like a poem, underscored by flipbook illustrations of Tom's beloved Bob. Laid out with only one sentence per page, the book’s spare quality and unique design have a powerful impact and readers will return to its pages again and again.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
 NICE AFTERNOON READ July 24, 2008
A cute, heart-warming book about "Bob", formerly known as "Red." Not much content, word-wise, but a good message about spreading unconditional love around the world. I read it under a palm tree with a little snoozing off and on, listening to the surf, just completely relaxed. I liked the book, the presentation and the thoughts. The empty pages left me lots of space to write down my own feelings and notes. I might issue it as Bob II - he was a good friend for sure...
 Quick but Touching Read April 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a really short story - I read it while in an airport book store on a layover and cried in the middle of the store. Serves me right huh! Highly recommended read but you should purchase it (and then pass it on!).
eulogy for a loved pet April 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Spare and touching, Mostly Bob is a eulogy to a beloved dog, whose own insistent sense of self-preservation brought him to the author's home. The simple graphic presentation is just right. For anyone who has had a much-loved animal, worth reading.
 not sure what to think March 31, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm not only a dog lover, I'm one of those people who've written about their dog. I've read other people's stories about their dogs and cried. (Have you read Arthur Phillips's "My Dog Days" in the New York Times? It wipes me out every time I do.) At this moment, my dog Harry is under my desk, curled up on a cushion next to my feet.
And...I don't know what to think about Mostly Bob.
When I read another reviewer say something like, "Anybody who couldn't stand the blank spaces on the pages probably can't stand children's books, either," I assumed that meant there were different illustrations or something on each page, and probably just a paragraph or so of type, like kids' books.
Wrong. Each time you turn to a new two-page spread, you get one sentence on the right-hand side. Turn the page again. Another sentence. Turn again. Another sentence. Gee, I thought, this guy's really making me work for it! If you're the kind of person who takes in prose in a constant stream, this is like having your thoughts continually interrupted. Turn the page, a sentence, turn the page... this one's entirely blank. Guess we're between paragraphs.
The book is, basically, an essay. And it has moments when it seemed moving to me; a dog that takes control of his own destiny! Lovely. (Though why it took the author a year and half to respond is a mystery; most dog lovers I know would have responded within three weeks. But it is not for me to plumb the heart of another human.)
It's just... okay, I'll say it. I feel a little taken. I found myself wondering whether the author was sincere, which, I swear to you, is not the kind of cynical thought I want to be thinking when I'm reading a story about dog and person. But when an essay gets bloated into a book that has $12.95 stamped on it... and it's so non-specific. Bob "got over" his tendency to growl and see the world as his enemy. Well, there are a lot of people out there working hard every day with dogs who growl and see the world as their enemy, and it's not that easy. The love of one person doesn't make strangers less scary; it takes training and commitment every day, and even then, you can't be sure. If this book had had some of that part of the story in it, I would have loved to read it -- what went right, what went wrong, the small victories, the joys.
But it was very short and very vague -- so vague, as I said, it made me wonder. The tidal wave of praise the book has garnered just doesn't make sense to me, unless it stems from readers who are accessing their love for their own dogs.
I'm sorry to say it, because I don't want to harsh anyone's buzz. Clearly a lot of people love the thing. But for any readers like me, I thought I should give warning.
 Mostly P.O.S. March 30, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Page 1. Bob was a dog.
Page 2. Bob used to be "Red", the neighbor's dog.
Page 3. Bob became "Bob", the writer's dog.
Page 4. Bob died.
Page 5. The writer wrote a paean about Bob.
Page 6. The paean amounted to about 3 pages.
Page 7. The writer published the paean in a book, with one sentence per page.
Page 8. A couple of thousand trees died to publish the first run alone.
Page 9. The world mourns the loss of the trees.
Page 10. Nobody gives a hoot about Bob.
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