Sometimes you come across things that just seem to fit together: rainy days and sleeping in, Vegemite and cheese… and cats and books. The pleasure of reading is greatly enhanced for me when there’s a ball of fur curled up in my lap, and if the number of books devoted to the subject of our feline friends is anything to go by, I’m not the only one who thinks that cats and books are a purrfect match (apologies).
So this month, I’m throwing the blog over to a couple of reviewers infinitely more qualified to speak about the subject than myself, Lyra and Pig.
Lyra: Oh, hello, I didn’t see you there. I was far too engrossed in my book. Sometimes it’s hard to find a good book - these days people will write about anything. I mean, who really wants to read about dogs called Marley?
Luckily there are some excellent biographies out there to balance it out. At the moment I’m reading Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World. It’s about a kitten left in the book deposit box of the local library. Dewey, as he becomes known, is raised by the librarians and quickly becomes a local celebrity, bringing joy to all in the way that only a cat can.
Pig: I really liked There Are Cats in this Book by Viviane Schwartz, after I’d finished playing in it that is. In this lift-the-flap book, Tiny, Moonpie and Andre get up to lots of fun things like playing with wool, pillow fights and hiding in boxes. When I grow up, I want to be a cardboard box.
Lyra: I love a good fantasy, and it doesn’t get much more unbelievable than this – cats and dogs getting along! The photos of cats and dogs smooching all over each other in Frenemies by Christine Montaquila must be photoshopped. This is the perfect gift for cat lovers (isn’t everyone?) or animal lovers in general (who are really just cat lovers that haven’t made their minds up yet).
Pig: Read it again! Again! I want to hear about the Library Lion who visits the library and gets told off by the librarians when he roars too loudly! Or how he dusts the shelves with his big tail! Or how he saves the day when the head librarian falls and hurts herself! Again! NOOOW!
Lyra: Oh, are you still here? Stop distracting me, there’s still so much reading to do – speaking of lions in strange places, most of us have seen Christian the Lion on youtube. Well now you can better acquaint yourself with the lion that was raised in a flat above a furniture shop by reading A Lion Called Christian.
Doris Lessing’s On Cats is a compilation of works on her love of our wonderful species. It consists of the collection Particularly Cats, Rufus the Survivor and the memoir The Old Age of El Magnifico.
And last but not least, The Devious Book For Cats. Finally, a book that truly understands the feline mind! In the same vein as the Dangerous Book for Boys, this book details the important things in life, such as The Art of Swiping Food (page 4), or Catfight! Five Moves You Should Know (page 103). Now if you don’t mind, I’m off to put the wisdom on page 80 into practice: An Illustrated Guide to Napping.
