'By The Book....Writers On Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review'

       The jacket blurb puts it this way : "For the reader, By The Book is a way to invite sixty-five of the most interesting guests into your world. It's a book party not to be missed." By The Book , Writers On Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review is the title of a new book edited by Pamela Paul whose title, By The Book, is itself taken from a weekly feature of the New York Times Book Review. It is a compilation of sixty-five interviews with various authors and literary figures. They are simple questions, often the same questions, and if you happen to recognize some of the interviewees then you might be interested in their answers.
         It was only missing one thing........me......an interview with Special Dog. I'm sure it was just an oversight. I mean if you interview Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, then Special Dog would be the obvious next choice wouldn't it? It couldn't be the weird name.....Special Dog.....because Sting is in there. I mean.....Sting.....what the heck kind of name is that? So, what I'll do here is write down questions to me and the answers and then put the piece of paper in the book, probably between the interviews of E. L. Doctorow and Arnold Schwarzenegger (I think they stretched it putting him in there) and return it to the library and maybe it will catch on. So here we go:

What book is on your nightstand right now?
Special Dog: You know, I never read in bed. I mean when my head hits that pillow then I'm out! How about the end table next to my Lazy Boy? Will that do? OK, the book is Rebel Yell, the Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson by S. C. Gwynne. I never thought I'd say it but a new book took the place of Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend by James L. Robertson as the definitive work on the Confederate general and America's most aggressive military leader.

Which of the books you've written is your favorite?
 Special Dog: That's easy, I only wrote one book. It doesn't have a name though, I kind of just refer to it as Isaac Crockett. Its never been published. I couldn't figure out the directions for sending in a manuscript. So it's on the world wide web at isaaccrockett.blogspot.com. I am at work on a sequel though and have one chapter finished..

What was the last book that made you cry?
Special Dog: It doesn't have a name, I just refer to it as Isaac Crockett.

What was the last book that made you laugh?
Special Dog: Uh....same book. I reread it about once every month because its so good!

If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you want to know?
Special Dog: Well my answer is.....any writer that is dead and can answer questions is who I would want to meet! What kind of question is that? Or, are you asking me what writer I would want to meet if I were dead or alive? If I were dead I don't care who I would....'meet.' Now If I were alive, as in fact I am alive, I would like to  meet Pamela Paul and ask her why she did not include me in her book and would she consider adding me to a future printing?

What's the one book you wish someone else would write?
Special Dog: Wow, that's a profound question. Did you ask anyone else this question? Gee, I don't know........this one would be interesting though......."How I Screwed Up the United States of America and the World, Ruined Race Relations, Advanced Communism, Stabbed Israel in the Back, Established the American Record for Appointing the Most Incompetent Losers to Posts they had no Business Being In and Did it all Without Anyone Knowing the First Thing About Me Other Than Sound Bites Given Out by My Handlers, and Got in over 200 Rounds of 
Golf in the Process. by Barack Hussein Obama.'  I would want that book signed....and then analyzed by a handwriting expert for any abnormal psychological traits.

What's the last book you read?
Special Dog: That's a silly question.....By The Book, Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from the New York Times Book Review.

What's the greatest book that you have ever read, and why?
Special Dog: The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. That's easy, a mender of pots and pans-a simple tinker, writes a book from jail where he was put for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and that book goes on to be the greatest selling book in the English language next to the Bible. Yeah, it's the greatest book that I ever read, and Charles Spurgeon read it 100 times so he might have agreed.

If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?
Special Dog: Well, first of all no one requires this president to do anything, not the Constitution, not the law and not his own conscience. The closest thing to anyone who could require him to do anything would be the designers of this Manchurian President. But.....to go along with your question as if things were indeed normal......my answer would be....Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century, by Paul Kengor.

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?
Special Dog: Why I Am Not A Christian by Bertrand Russell,The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (also interviewed in your book), the Catechism of the Catholic Church, God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens, Heaven Is For Real by Todd Burpo, Four Blood Moons by John Hagee and The Harbinger by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and the Book Of Mormon by Joseph Smith.

You can bring three books to a desert island, Which do you choose?
Special Dog: How To Survive on a Deserted Island by Tim O'Shei, Coconut Cures by Bruce Fife and How To Sell Tropical Real Estate by Samsian Coedes.

What's the best love story that you've ever read?
Special Dog:  The Bible, It's also the best mystery book, the best poetry book, the best history book, the best biography (man), the best psychology book, the best philosophy book, the best economics book, the best health book and the best current events book.

One final question. What do you plan to read next?
Special Dog: Probably tomorrow morning's newspaper. Or do you mean...what book..do I plan on reading next... after Isaac Crockett that is? I don't have the slightest idea! Probably whatever cover font grabs my attention at  Barnes and Noble