Travels With Casey

Confession time: I have really hard time passing up a dog-themed book on the sale table. Seriously, if said book came with a glass of wine and a brownie it would be completely irresistible. So when I saw a hardback copy of Travels with Casey for less than 5 bucks at Books-a-Million you know I bought it! In all fairness, I had just spent that much on a caramel macchiato at the in-store coffee shop. (Froofy coffee, another one of my vices. Yep, I've got issues . . .)

The book sat on my to-be-read pile for a few months before I got to it. The basic premise of the book is:

Neurotic New Yorker rents an RV and travels the country with his dog. He visits various dog-centric people and places along the way.

For the most part I liked the book. I've always thought it would be exciting to rent an RV and travel the country. It's fun to read about somebody who actually did. Other interesting things about the book that appeal to me are:

• Apparently this author knows Josh Dean who wrote the book Show Dog that I reviewed back in March. It sounds like they were writing their books at the same time.
• Benoit and Casey came to Jacksonville. In fact, they were doing doga on the beach. I wonder if I saw him? Wouldn't that have been freaky?
• During his travels he met Amy Burkett from Go Pet Friendly -- one of my absolute favorite blogs!

And there were a couple things I didn't like about the book:

• The story tends to meander. That's not bad, but it's not my style. I prefer more of a in-your-face John Grisham kind of story to a we'll-get-there-when-we-get-there Alexander McCall Smith kind of story. 
• I couldn't care less about the author's love life. I'm NOT a romance reader by any means. I want to read about dogs, dragons and dead people, period.
• I really wish there had been more pictures.

All in all, it was entertaining and definitely worth the $5. Now if only I could talk Hubby into selling everything and buying an RV. I tried really hard when Leah and the pups from Let's Go Dog stopped by here on their perimeter tour of the U.S. last year. Hubby said no. Unless I can either win the lottery or write a million dollar novel, we have to continue working to pay the bills. Dammit. But I'll keep trying! Until then . . . -- K