How Shall I Tell the Dog? by Miles Kington + Contest!

Published July, 2009.

When some people are told they have only a few months to live, they might travel around the world or quietly put their affairs in order. When it happened at the age of 66 to Miles Kington - one of England's best-loved humorists - he did what he did best, offering wry, laugh-out-loud observations about his situation. Following his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, Kington embarked on How Shall I Tell the Dog?, written as a series of letters to his literary agent and longtime friend, Gill, in which he proposes crazier and crazier ideas for a new book that "cashes in on cancer."

His final musings include everything from the irony of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and creating a funeral video ("Hello. I'm sorry I couldn't be here in person with you today"), to the notion of creating cancer language guides (Parlez-vous Cancer?) and the prospect of being outlived by his dog, Berry. Mischievous and utterly original, Kington's final words are a celebration of life. (book back blurb)

This is another one of my BEA ARCs that I thought looked endearing enough when I picked it up. It's slated as, "A book to make the Grim Reaper laugh" and I honestly thought it would be more musings about how to go about telling his dog that he was dying. I really don't want to criticize a dead guy's final book but . . .

I was just rather annoyed with the humor. I didn't find it all that funny. Maybe I didn't get the British wit. Maybe, to some people, there is something funny about a guy who just has nothing but ideas but no motivation to follow through with any of them. Considering its ringing motif throughout, I just found it annoying and, eventually, grating. Just shut up about the ideas already. You're obviously going nowhere with them. To me, that's what this guy did himself to his agent, which I only found more annoying.

Like I said, maybe that is the humor. I just didn't find it funny. I don't know who Miles Kington was. I've never heard of him before picking up this book. I couldn't tell you if I genuinely liked his humor or not. But judging by this book alone, I don't. It's exceptionally dry. And I like dry humor. I found this so dry it was, for the most part, humorless.

It wasn't the book I thought it was going to be which I think hardened it even more. There were a couple of chuckle parts but none of this laugh-out-loud that the blurb said would be in there. At least not for me. Again, maybe I just didn't get the humor. But hopefully someone else will.

CONTEST TIME!

Does this sound like something you might get a kick out of? Then comment with your email to enter to win it. Answer this questions for an extra 2 points - Who's your favorite comedianand why? Follow (new or old, doesn't matter) for another 2 points. I'll open this one up to international readers as well since it's a British author. Contest will end August 8th. Good luck!