Weekly chat topic: Cat books

[egret]

 What is your favorite cat book?

A book about cats? A book with cats in it? A book written by cats? Share in the comments, with explanations if you like. 

Comments

[lunabee34]

A Pussycat's Christmas by Margaret Wise Brown

The language is just so beautiful. It's the most gorgeous prose poem. I love it.

[venusundae]

my favorite cat book is one that i can't remember the title of but i rly wish i could! i read an english translated version of the book, but it was originally in japanese i believe. and i was just so enamored w it bc it was very obviously written by someone who was obsessed w their own cats and taking (very high quality and beautiful~) pictures of their own cats that filled the book along w cute cat facts and stories.

that's where i learned that cats apparently don't emit any sort of body odors on their own? and if they smell like something it's bc they got it rubbed off on them from their environment, which i thought was interesting.

probably a useless comment without knowing the title but i'm crossing my fingers that someone around here magically happens to know the book too! if i can figure it out tho i'll let you know haha.

besides that tho i have a nostalgic attachment to the children's book the cookie store cat~

[rosefox]

that's where i learned that cats apparently don't emit any sort of body odors on their own

I assume farts and anal gland expression don't count, because WHEW.

[stormsong]

Re: body odors... The first time I gave catnip to my shelter cat, she was so happy that she ran under the bed and farted (expressed anal glands). It was hilarious.

[archersangel]

All My Patients Are Under The Bed: Memoirs of a Cat Doctor by Dr. Louis J. Camuti and Marilyn & Haskel Frankel.
Dr. Camuti was a New York City cat veterinarian who made housecalls on cats and their people for over sixty years. He was the first veterinarian in the United States to devote his entire practice to cats.

Also;
The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth

In ancient Japan, a struggling artist is angered when his housekeeper brings home a tiny white cat he can barely afford to feed. But when the village's head priest commissions a painting of the Buddha for a healthy sum, the artist softens toward the animal he believes has brought him luck.

According to legend, the proud and haughty cat was denied the Buddha's blessing for refusing to accept his teachings and pay him homage. So when the artist, moved by compassion for his pet, includes the cat in his painting, the priest rejects the work and decrees that it must be destroyed. It seems the artist's life is ruined as well -- until he is rewarded for his act of love by a Buddhist miracle.

A bit sad thought.

[musyc]

All My Patients Are Under The Bed: Memoirs of a Cat Doctor by Dr. Louis J. Camuti and Marilyn & Haskel Frankel.

OH MY GOD, I haven't thought about this book in years. Thank you for the reminder!

[musyc]

My favorite books starring cats are probably the Cat Who series by Lilian Jackson Braun. Cozy mysteries often half-solved by the protagonist's Siamese cats? Love it. XD

For sheer funny value, I Could Pee On This, poems 'by cats. I laughed so hard at most of the poems. Too true.

[archersangel]

i like the cat who..... series, but it got a bit formulaic after awhile.

other mysteries with cats that are characters that i like are the mrs. murphy series by rita mae brown & the midnight louie series by carole nelson douglas.

[krait]

A few favourite cat books:

Ratha's Creature by Claire Bell - prehistoric sapient cats discover, and tame, fire.

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley- I love the wild cats Aerin befriends so much, and younger!me would have killed to have one!

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett - a book about mice, but Maurice the cat does sometimes seem to steal the show!


The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle - although minor, the cat is a great character! "No cat out of its first fur can ever be deceived by appearances. Unlike human beings, who enjoy them."

[rosefox]

Don Marquis's poems about Archy the cockroach and Mehitabel the cat. Here's one of many wonderful examples.

for i am a reincarnation of cleopatra
as i told you long ago you mean
her soul transmigrated to a cat s
body i said it is
all one archy said she have it your own
way reincarnation or transmigration
is the same to me the point is
i used to be a queen in
egypt and will likely be one again

[lyorn]

I kind of love "The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr".

"Kind of", because I do not like to read the whole book -- the human parts are less fun, and the cat dies at the end -- but the voice of Murr, the ironic bathos when he switches from art to fish in half a sentence, and the way he is so very much Cat: completly convinced of his worth, skill, and rightness, filled with the kind of entitlement so enjoyable in cats and so annoying in humans.

[gwendraith]

The Mog books by Judith Kerr, especially Mog's Christmas :)

[astralconflict]

I loved these books when I was a kid!

[gwendraith]

Mog made a big comeback in 2015 when Sainsbury's had him featured as their Christmas advert. I managed to get two Mog soft toys which sold like hot cakes. One for the grandchildren and one for me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuRn2S7iPNU

[astralconflict]

Ah that's right! I remember seeing it on TV, it was a nice bit of nostalgia for sure :)

[chochiyo_sama]

My favorite is a children's book called Papa Gatto, which is basically the story of Cinderella, except that a kindly widower cat with a basket of orphaned kittens is the "fairy god mother" figure.

The art is gorgeous.

[astralconflict]

My favourite books with cats is most certainly 'a tale of Tom Kitten' and the accompanying stories with the kittens in them, all by Beatrix Potter of course!

[cesy]

I liked The Mouse Butcher by Dick King-Smith when I was younger. I haven't re-read it in years.

[inquisitiveraven]

I used to like some bits from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot though I haven't read the whole thing, specifically the poem "McCavity." There was also the poem about cats having three names.

IIRC, that book is the inspiration for the musical Cats.