Have you seen Blade Runner, Ridley Scott's superb '82 Sci-Fi film? The paperback copy of Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep includes the line, "The inspiration for Blade Runner". Even though it's been a long time since I watched the movie, I would agree with the term: inspiration. The bones of the book are in the movie, but it's only a part of what this book says. And at a page count of just under 250, it is deceivingly image packed tale. 
 Of Philip K. Dick's books, "Android's" is probably his most well known. That's probably due to Scott's film. It also seems like many consider it their favorite PKD work. This being my first PKD read, I cannot yet say. I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. 
 Here's why this book was so intriguing to me: Dick creates a world that surrounds an atypical, yet extremely engaging plot. It's like he has taken a thought, or premise and built a world around it. If the story itself wasn't intriguing enough, the setting certainly was. Our earth of the future is reflected as a broken, nearly desolate place, yet advanced enough to make Androids that pass as humans. When a group of the latest organic Nexus-6 model go rogue, it becomes Rick Deckard job to find them. The problem becomes finding what is nearly human among humans. This sounds like an out-in-out Sci-Fi work, but it is not. 
 In the film version, I have a vague recollection of a few animals crossing the screen. They are much more prominent in the book. The point of the animals in the story is one of empathy. People love animals in our own real world, but here they are prevalent (mostly) and often taken for granted. In this world, they are a rarity, precious to own. So much so, that replicate machine animals are manufactured and sold at a fraction of the cost. 
 My initial advice is: get past the first 10 pages. The beginning is not really understood until later. At first this book reads like a catch-the-criminal story. Half-way into his hunt, the tables are turned on Rick, and therefore on the reader. What is real and what is right? By the middle point, and certainly by the end, I found the book had become so much more than its beginning. It was deep-seated human story that questions humanity and compassion.