Dog Days of Summer Contest - Winner

The winner is Zeke! This dog was attentively listening to Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. This was a summer reading assignment for his owner, Justin Erbe, who decided to share the book with Zeke. This made it a much faster read. Note to Justin,  "Do not read the ending to Zeke. He won't like it."
Justin gets to pick whichever story he thinks Zeke will like to listen to next.

The runner-up is Chris Sigurdson for her fabulous relaxing in a hammock photo. We were all envious. She will get a book of The Book Whisperer's choosing because she waits for her reviews anyway. She is also a loyal follower of this blog.

Reminder: We still have two contests running: The Adult summer reads and the Read it and Eat contest. (We're still waiting for bribes!)

Dog Days of Summer

The Dog Days of Summer are technically the hottest, sultry days of the summer, when air is stagnant. Named by the Romans (although the Greeks had also called this period dog days) for the time from late July to early Sept. The brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (large dog) Sirius, the dog star, rises with the setting sun at the end of July/beginning of August. The Romans designated 40 days, 20 before and 20 after this event, as the dog days of summer, and sacrificed a brown dog in order to appease/prevent hot weather (they believed the earth received heat from this star, which combined with the sun at this time was responsible for the hot days of summer.).


The old farmers almanac has the dates at 3 July to 11 August. Seems to be slightly longer this year, although cooler weather ahead, after all these violent storms!

The Patron saint of dogs, St Roch has his feast day on August 16th, which was during most European dog days. Hello Rochester!

"It was an 'evil time when seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad and all creatures became languid" Brady's 1813 Clavis Calendarium

Dog Days of Summer Contest

One of our favourite dogs was caught listening to one of his favourite books : Note the Attention!!
So we need your help to choose between some of the submissions...

Dog Days of Summer contest entry

What do dogs like to read?
What do people like to read in the heat of the summer?


Send us your entries! Official Rules
Deadline: August 16, 2010

Remember this also counts as a book for your summer reads contest.

Details soon!