Marley and Me
Friday, December 16, 2005
The Gift Effect
I've been doing a lot of book signings these past several weeks, and I'm beginning to better understand why Marley & Me is entering its eighth week on The New York Times Bestseller List (#5 this week) -- people are buying multiple copies to give as gifts. I braved a sleet and ice storm last night to do a signing in North Wales, Pennsylvania, about 45 miles north of Philadelphia. About 35 hardy souls ventured out to meet me there. But what amazed me was that only a few of them bought single copies. The rest purchased multiple copies, two, four, seven. And then today a woman stopped by my office and asked if I could take a minute to sign copies she had bought for each employee at her horse farm. Sure, I said, thinking three or four. Then she brought in two big bags containing 25 copies. Wow, I told her. HarperCollins should make you an honorary board member or something.
A reporter for USA Today this week asked me to explain the phenomenon that was keeping Marley up on the bestseller list, propelling it into its 15th printing, soon to have more than half a million copies in print. I didn't do a very good job explaining. The following letter, which I received today, I think gets closer at the dynamic than anything I was able to come up with. The writer, a teacher from Caifornia, knew nothing of the book, spotted it in her local bookstore, picked it up...and you'll have to read to the end to see what happens.
I walked into Border's Books today to buy a gift for my daughter's third-grade teacher, and I saw Marley watching me from the book display inside the main door. "Life and love with the world's worst dog..." There were two copies on the shelf, and I grabbed them both. For the past two weeks I have been reading exams and papers and calculating grades and somehow I just knew that a book about a really awful yellow Lab was just what the doctor ordered. And it was. I started reading it in the long checkout line. With a tinge of guilt, I bought only one copy and decided I would read it and share it with a friend. But I am keeping my copy. I can get another for a friend.
We put down our beloved almost-16-year-old black retriever mix on November 2. We got Ricky when he was 7 years old. I don't think his tail ever stopped wagging as long as he was awake--until the very last day. I miss him so, so much. But he was such a mellow old guy. The worst thing he ever did was continually feast on the neighbor's cat's poop buried in our yard and then chase away the cat.
The year before, we lost Queenie, a floppy-eared red Queensland heeler mix with one blue eye and one brown eye, who was at our doorstep one day when I brought the kids home from school in 1997. Queenie downed a whole package of Costco hamburger buns, bag and all, and put herself in her never-used doghouse for it. While a landscaper ripped up our yard, we sent her next door to Grammy's yard, but she somehow jumped the six-foot fence to get back home. I could never figure out how she did that. Whenever my husband dumped her out of his (her) recliner, she would strut out to the yard, come back in with a dried clump of poop, and drop it at his feet...and stare at him, eyeball to eyeball.
We have had other dogs, too. And now, for the first time in years, we are dogless, in a clean dogless house that is just...empty.
But reading your wonderful book about Marley has made me smile and cry and has so touched my heart, and I know that someday, somehow, another loppity what-not with a cold and very wet nose will find its way into our family.
Thank you for sharing so articulately and with so much heart, your journey through life with your wonderful dear friend. Thank you for sharing the joys and the sorrows. Your tribute to him is helping my heart heal.
And I am buying a copy of Marley & Me for my friend who just had to put down her yellow lab, Iris...and for my friend who has a loppity old shepherd who can scarcely see anymore...and for my friend who has a 9-month old mutt who is always in trouble for the dangdest things, and for our vet and his wife. What a beautiful gift you have shared with the world.
Jackie H., Walnut Creek, CA
posted by John Grogan at 3:36 PM
 
4 Comments:
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How about a book signing trip to Texas (Dallas). We have dogs too, you know. In fact, I have TWO yellow labs.
Is your book on tape yet? If not, I should buy a copy and narrate it onto tape for my friend with macular degeneration.
We'd love to see you in Albany, NY too........as would our precious 6 year old chocolate lab, appropriately named Hershey
Bought the book as a Christmas gift for my wife. Would love to get it autographed.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful story.
I'm posting this comment as my wife is laughing while reading the book. I bought it for her as a Christmas gift and she's loving it!