Thursday, March 1, 2007

Behold, Obadiah, Destroyer of Books





Meet Obadiah. He's a pit bull, but not a mean one. In fact, he's so friendly he's a bit of a pain in the ass, kind of needy, you could say. What really pisses me off about him, though, isn't his neediness, which often manifests itself as demands for attention at 5 a.m., but his penchant for destroying packages.
If Fed Ex or UPS delivers something and sets it on the porch, forget it. He will tear it apart. That happened today, with a package containing four ARCs from Serpent's Tail and Bitter Lemon Press. Any other day this week it would not have been a big deal, but today it has been pouring down rain here in Asheville, and all of the books are waterlogged.
They are all sitting out, on an old copy of the Wall Street Journal in the hope that they will be readable when they dry out. If I handle them too much now they will fall apart.
Fortunately, most books I get sent make it into the house fine, but every once in a while, Obie gets to them first. He isn't much of a reader.

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