Well, I did this backwards. I watched the movie first - it was interesting, and Jeff Bridges did a good job portraying Jon Katz, however, since it is only "based" on the book, there are a bunch of inaccurate scenes in the movie.
The book is one of the few Jon Katz books that I had not read, so as soon as I watched the movie, I placed a hold on the book at the library, plus the other 3 books of Jon's that I had not read.
According to the movie, Jon is having writer's block, not so in the book. Jeff Bridges is good to look at, Jon is attractive in his own way, however, Jon suffers from a leg problem - which is mentioned in the book ( A Dog Year) - when he takes Devon and Homer to the sheepherder's farm he has a brace on one leg- this is not even considered in the movie, which I think is a major negative point for the movie. The scene only involves Devon, another inaccuracy of the movie. This makes what Jon did in real life with Devon and Homer even more remarkable.
It took me about 3 hours to read the book, and when I am finished reading my current book, I shall take on the other 3 books of Jon's. His writing is enjoyable, and easy to get caught up in. I learned alot about Border Collies.
As an footnote, the day after I finished reading "A Dog Year", I was working at the circ desk, when a patron came in to return books. This was one of those "do-do-do-do" twilight zone theme moments. We started chatting, she mentioned that her family was considering a new dog, as they had to have their dog put down recently. Naturally, I asked her what kind, she stated "Border Collie", well having just read about Border Collies, I said that might not be a good choice unless you have lots of room and something for it to "herd", she told me that I was the third person to tell her that. We were discussing the book, when one of my co-workers brought up a book, she had found lying on a table, to place in the book drop -"BORDER COLLIES". The patron and I just looked at each other!
Well, I hope you will consider reading Jon Katz's books on all his dogs. They are really enjoyable.
Happy Reading!
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