The Warwick's Questionnaire: Steven Kotler

The so-called Proust Questionnaire was originally a 19th-century parlor game designed to reveal bits of the soul, personality, & deep secrets of the participants through a series of pointed questions.  Versions of the quiz were re-popularized in the 20th-century by Vanity Fair and Inside the Actors Studio.  Our version - The Warwick's Questionnaire - is a series of ten questions designed to plumb the depths of the souls of visiting authors.

Steven Kotler is the author of Small Furry Prayer: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life and the founder of Rancho de Chihuahua dog sanctuary.  He lives in New Mexico with his wife and "too many dogs." (He visited Warwick's on October 11, 2010.)

1. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

• Honestly, I have no idea.

2. What is your greatest fear?

• I tend not to think in those terms. I look at fear as a directional sign. I have found that the things that I love most in life are on the other side of fear. So I try to go right at what scares me. Sort of ruins the question...

3. If you were a superhero, what would your power be?

• Teleportation.

4. If you could bring one writer back from the dead, who would it be?

• Hemingway. Wow, would I love to look over his shoulder while he was editing.

5. What is your most treasured possession?

• I still have the first stuffed animal (a seal) I ever had. From when I was a little kid. In a weird way it was the first animal I ever loved.

6. Which living person do you most admire?

• My wife.

7. If you were not able to be in the writing profession, what would your preferred occupation be?

• I don't know if you'd call it an occupation, but I would definitely spend way more time surfing, skiing, mountain biking etc.

8. How many dogs is "too many" dogs?

• It varies. And it's hard to count. But around 30.

9. What are you most looking forward to seeing on your tour stop in San Diego?

• The ocean.

10.What is your motto?

• I don't know if I have a motto, but I once got a chance to ski with Johnny Deslaurie - one of the first "extreme skiers." I asked him what the secret to getting better was and he told me: "you go as fast as you f-ing can until you crash - that's how you get better." I find these words often apply to my life.

The Warwick's Questionnaire: Eric Puchner

The so-called Proust Questionnaire was originally a 19th-century parlor game designed to reveal bits of the soul, personality, & deep secrets of the participants through a series of pointed questions.  Versions of the quiz were re-popularized in the 20th-century by Vanity Fair and Inside the Actors Studio.  Our version - The Warwick's Questionnaire - is a series of ten questions designed to plumb the depths of the souls of visiting authors.

Eric Puchner is the author of the acclaimed short story collection, Music Through the Floor and is currently an assistant professor of literature at Clairemont McKenna College.  He visited Warwick's in September (complete event video at the bottom of the post), for the paperback release of his debut novel, Model Home. 

1. What do you consider your greatest achievement? 

Seth, Joe, Eric Puchner, & Scott.



• I pogosticked for two consecutive hours once as a child, in an effort to set a world record.

2. What is your greatest fear?

• Death

3. If you were a superhero, what would your power be?

• To be able to return shopping carts to their rightful place in the parking lot, with my mind.

4. If you could bring one writer back from the dead, who would it be?

• Myself (see number 2)

5. What is your most treasured possession?

• My five year old daughter's daily drawings for me. Also my ear plugs.

6. Which living person do you most admire?

• Alice Munro

7. If you were not able to be in the writing profession, what would your preferred occupation be?

• Rock star or zoologist

8. In ten words or less, please explain the significance of the peacock in Model Home. (This was a topic of debate when Eric was at Warwick's.  An unresolved debate.)

• The peacock is only a peacock.

9. What (were) you most looking forward to seeing on your tour stop in San Diego?

• My friends at Warwick's.

10. What is you motto?

• My senior page in my high school yearbook featured this quote by Vonnegut: "So it goes."

Model Home is set “amid the affluent splendor of the 1980s” in Southern California. It is the story of Warren Ziller and his family at the moment their American dream disintegrates. At turns comic and bleak, Puchner’s novel chronicles bad real estate deals, bad sex ed. films and bad punk bands as a middle class family splinters and is literally banished to the wilderness of the California desert. Oh, and there is a young boy who only wears orange. McSweeney’s wrote of the novel: "The only conclusion to come to after reading this novel is that Eric Puchner is a massive talent."  The Boston Globe has called Puchner "...an extraordinarily talented writer… a master of mood and tone."

So Many Dog Books, So Little Time

Before anyone jumps all over me (no pun intended) I just want to say that I love dogs.  Most dogs, anyway.  Although not currently a dog owner, I have been in the past - a dirty, white mutt named Margo when I was growing up and a short, overweight doberman pinscher (Jade) when I was in my 20's - and I loved them dearly as faithful friends.  Well, if I'm being honest, they were more "faithful animal companions" rather than "friends."  Actually, I think that distinction may be at the heart of my ensuing rant: I think we have a serious problem of overpopulation in this country...of dog books. 

I don't know if this problem is simply indicative of current trends in the book industry or reflective of our society as a whole, but the over-abundance of dog-related nonfiction titles clogging up the stacks of the nation's bookstores has reached a level of insanity that I am, frankly, uncomfortable with.

This is in no way a criticism of the buying habits of the book buyers in our nation's bookstores, of course, since I am to be counted among their number.  Who's fault could it be if half of every publisher's catalogue is dog books?  Nor can I really blame those readers who genuinely want to read tales of inspiring canines. Who am I to judge, right?  Currently, the following titles are available as new hardcover books & are all displayed on just one of the non-fiction tables at Warwick's.  None of these are available in the actual Dog section at the store, mind you - all are mixed into General Nonfiction.  You tell me if this is too many dog books:


Out of control.

• The Dog Who Couldn't Stop Loving: How Dogs Have Captured Our Hearts for Thousands of Years by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
• Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin
• Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors Into a Family by Glenn Plaskin
• Huck: The Remarkable True Story of How One Lost Puppy Taught a Family - and a Whole Town - About Hope and Happy Endings by Janet Elder
• Last Dog on the Hill: The Extraordinary Life of Lou by Steve Duno
• One Dog at a Time: Saving the Strays of Afghanistan by Pen Farthing
• A Small Furry Prayer by Steven Kotler
• Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search-and-Rescue Dog by Susannah Charleson
• The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption by Jim Gorant
• Life with Maxie by Diane Rehm
• Fixing Freddie: A True Story About a Boy, a Mom, and a Very, Very Bad Beagle by Paula Munier
• Cesar's Rules: Your Way to Train a Well-Behaved Dog by Cesar Millan (Cesar is a renowned dog trainer, but since it's new, I had to put it on the list.)
• Through a Dog's Eyes: Understanding Our Dogs By Understanding How They See the World by Jennifer Arnold
• The Divine Life of Animals: One Man's Quest to Discover Whether the Souls of Animals Live On by Ptolemy Tompkins
• Rose in a Storm (A Novel) by Jon Katz

(I'd like to apologize to Steven Kotler and Steve Duno, who either have appeared at the store in the recent past or will someday soon - I have to include everyone if this rant is going to have any weight.)

Almost all of these books seem to be attempts at tugging at our heartstrings: Don't you want to see how dogs see the world?  Don't you want to know if your dog's going to heaven with you?  See how this dog changed the lives of __ number of people/families/towns/cities/libraries?  Look at this dog who loves this family even though he used to fight in dog fights!  Save the dogs of Iraq/Afghanistan/New Jersey!

I also can't help but get exasperated at the lengthy subtitles, all of which bear a similar message: "This particular dog - our dog - is the most incredible, life-changing dog, EVER!!"  C'mon, if I lacked any soul, I could write an inspiring story focused on one of my dogs too - but it doesn't mean that I should.



Jade, in her Mardi Gras attire.

Even worse, these are just the current stock of books with dog-themes.  We've had several best-selling novels with dog protagonists & plenty of memoirs concerning rescued dogs from war-torn countries, yet I blame the current overload almost solely on John Grogan and Marley.  C'mon, you know who I'm talkin' about.  Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog was the publishing phenomenon of 2005 (and beyond - we've sold over 400 copies of the hardcover edition) and is currently still available as an illustrated edition, a mass market paperback, a regular trade paperback, a movie tie-in edition trade paperback (from the 2008 film with Owen Wilson & Jennifer Aniston), two kids' spin-off easy-reader editions, large print, and in Spanish, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese translations.  None of these are to be confused with Don Taylor's 1995 memoir, Marley and Me: The Real Bob Marley Story, by the way.

The counter-argument is bound to be that publishers only print what there is a demand for, so if you see a preponderance of dog-related titles, it's really because "they" are giving "you" what "you" want.  I realize that there is a certain demand for titles like these, but I think that there are far, far too many being produced - if I can count over a dozen in a 5-foot radius on a single table, then there are far too many out there.  It is sort of a "chicken or the egg" argument - would we want so many dog books if there weren't so many being produced?  Or are the publishers actually reacting to our national dog-love?  Is it all just manufactured demand?  Personally, although I love dogs, I don't necessarily want to read 10 inspiring non-fiction books about them.

If James Patterson writes a dog book, I will be forced to quit the book industry forever.

I guess what bugs me the most is that all of these books are getting published and thousands of other, worthy titles are rejected by publishers and end up never seeing the light of day.  Considering that somewhere in the neighborhood of 200,000 titles get published in the States annually (according to UNESCO) it seems proportionally out of whack that I can count so many new, inspiring dog titles for a single season.

But hey, this is just the opinion of one, single dog-loving bookseller who just can't take it anymore.  Feel free to sic the dogs on me - I can take it.