Readers': Cats and books should not be made into sandwiches, but they go awesome together

Why is it that there are such things as bookstore and library cats? We don’t have a cat at Readers’--for a myriad of reasons, possibly including perpetually open doors, price of cat food, and the increase in vacuuming duties--and instead have the occasional dog biscuit for pets that are so obliging to have brought their people into a bookstore. However, there is something so iconic--in my head, at least--about a cat curled up on a pile of books.

Authors are fascinated by cats. From The Cat in the Hat to Old Possum Book of Cats; from Pete the Cat to Behemoth, cats are intertwined with books. Hemingway had so many that they interbreed and created cats with (very useful and adorable) multiple digits. Some popular names of cats are bookish names--Dewey is a famous library cat; I’ve met a Yossarian; and if I were to be given the honor of naming a female cat, what else could she possibly be but Diana Wynne Jones? (Her nickname could be Winnie)

I already have a very literary cat. My cat is polydactyl, or, as some people call them, a Hemingway cat. Many cats with extra toes merely have a few extra claws, but mine is unusual in that he has opposable thumbs. This allows him to get into all kinds of extra trouble (like dragging his water bowl around the floor, and hooking open closet doors) but has also led to his venerable name: Tennyson.

This is a self-indulgent cat caregiver’s way of saying that cats and books seem to go together. I like dogs a lot, and I think they are also very excellent companions for a reader. Not only are dogs good at cuddling and staying still, but they occasionally take their reader for walks, to, say, the bookstore. If you are lucky enough to have a cuddling cat (I don’t; Tennyson likes to sleep in boxes and grocery bags instead), they provide excellent reading partners. But we have another cat who only likes to cuddle if one doesn’t have a book with one and will attempt to engulf any reading matter with his sizable fluffy mane. So they do not beat out the dogs “sitting still” contest and cats certainly don’t like to join their people on walks around the neighborhood. That is, after all, why we don’t have a box of cat treats.

I am not sure why cats and books are such great partners. Perhaps it is that cats and books have the same kind of transformative abilities. When looking at a new book, or meeting a new cat, there are all kinds of possibilities inside. Will this be a good book? Will this cat be a friendly cat? Will it be easy to read? Will this be a shy cat who runs away as soon as you say hello? And when it is a book you have read and loved before, it is just as it is with your own cat: you may think you understand it and love it, but it will some day surprise you again with some beautiful passage or by developing the propensity to sleep in your laundry baskets. A book, like a cat, will always surprise you. With this in mind, Readers’ doesn’t need a bookstore cat, seeing as we already have books aplenty. You can add your own cat, if you wish (but only at home--we don’t have cat biscuits).


Crossposted: Readers' Books Facebook