Beschreibung
As new condition red cloth boards with gold front cover and spine lettering and a front cover color photographic paste down. Includes Dear Reader by John Grogan October 2006; Author Dedication; Acknowledgments; and About the Author. Illustrated with color photographs and a color photographic frontispiece. Also includes a bound-into-the-volume dark blue satin ribbon page marker. "When I sat down to write Marley & Me, I had no idea what lay ahead. I knew only that there was a story inside me burning to get out, a story I needed to tell. It was the story of my wife, Jenny, and me starting our life together and the big, nutty, incorrigible, lovable dog that changed it all. Changed us, changed our children, changed the family we would become. The first step in that odyssey was a column I wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer on January 6, 2004, saying good-bye to that dog, Marley, a Labrador retriever like no other. That column, which is included at the end of this special edition of Marley & Me, drew such an overwhelming response, I knew I had touched on something bigger, the story not just of a dog, not just of a family with a dog, but of the life journey humans and animals take together - the ups, the downs, the laughter, the tears; the joys and the heartbreaks. A journey worth taking. For nine months I wrote in solitude, mostly in the predawn darkness, not quite believing anyone would want to read an entire book about my very ordinary life. Then an amazing thing happened. My book was published and I was alone no more. From across the country - and eventually the globe - the letters and e-mails and phone calls began arriving. They came from retirees and newly weds, from police officers and firefighters, from college students and construction workers. They came from soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and from children in elementary schools. They came in a daily torrent and many of them said nearly the same thing: "It was like you were describing my life." They, too, had made the journey worth taking. In the very ordinariness of our lives, I had somehow managed to find the universal. Many of these readers have become like friends, making me laugh out loud and, occasionally, pause to bite my lip. They've embraced me like a member of their own families. One painted a beautiful portrait of Marley in oils and mailed it to me; another sent me songs she composed after the loss of her dog; several baked gourmet treats for our new lab, Gracie. A K-9 officer in Los Angeles gave me an elaborate framed dog-obedience diploma, complete with a dod paw-print stamp, because the real one had proved so elusive. Many blessed me with their sense of humor, such as the young woman who sent me a photograph with the provocative subject line: "Hot bedroom action." I opened the image to find her under the covers reading Marley & Me - with her pet boxer snoozing on top of her, the covers pulled to his chin. Marleyandme dot com has evolved into a sort of boisterous town square populated by thousands of dog lovers and book aficionados sharing stories and photos and advice and consolation. Friendships have been forged, phone numbers exchanged, invitations issued. Some are planning to meet in person. Yet another gift my never-do-well Marley has bestowed upon those he has touched - the gift of community. Jenny and I have a new dog now, and, yes, it's another yellow Labrador retriever. Her name is Gracie, and she is the anti-Marley - sweet, calm, sedate, focused. Every day I tell her, "Gracie, you're a great dog but don't expect a book about you. You're too good." And that makes me smile at the memory of the eternally mischievous Marley who filled our lives with so much joyous havoc. It amuses me to no end to think he has become a household name to millions. Dogs are great. Bad dogs, if we can really call them that, are perhaps the greatest of them all. - John Grogan, October 2006, from Preliminary Page entitled Dear Reader. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 004920
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