Books About Cats

Here is an idea: Post the title of a cat book you read and a short description so we can make a list. I will categorize books after compiling a lot for a master list. If you read more than one cat book, list all of them.

Last year, I read Dewey: The Library Cat Who Touched The World. Dewey was a tiny kitten when he was found in an Iowa library's book drop in January. He was a mostly orange tabby and lived in that library 19 years, becoming world-famous long before his death.

I am currently reading Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift Of An Ordinary Cat. Oscar lives at a nursing home in Rhode Island. He was supposed to just be a furry companion for residents, but every time someone dies, he is on that person's bed.

It is not really about cats, but All Cats Have Asperger's Syndrome has a big full-color photograph on every page that shows how people with a high-functioning form of autism are like cats.

I am new to this.. I just got my Sally few weeks ago.As if now I brought Complete Book of Cat Breeding, by Dan Rice, I haven't finished it yet.. it has some good information on pregnancy and helping in delivery.. I will post more upon completing it..Thanks again

Heh... All Cats have Asperger's. Probably one of the best ways to stop parents and siblings from freaking out when the doctor says "autism". Cute book. Not advanced or anything, but cute.

Hurm, does this include fiction?

If so then I'd like to add The Cats of Ulthar. I'm not actually sure if it's been published as a book by itself, or just in collections with H. P.'s other works, but it's a nice read. Especially if you're upset at someone who mistreats cats, lol. Easy to find online, since the copyright has expired.

Of course, the "The Cat Who..." books will be mentioned.  They're good books...but I always feel like the author writes until she gets bored with the story, then suddenly ends it with almost no explanation.

Robert Heinlein made the kitten Pixel important in a number of his stories.

"Homer's Odyssey" about the blind cat Homer can make you rethink cat ownership and what cats can do.

If I wrote a science fiction book, it would have to have a feline presence.
 

For fiction, I like the Joe Grey series by Shirley Rousseau Murphy. The Mrs. Murphy series by Rita Mae Brown is entertaining, but the author's last few books have been a bit too preachy about what she thinks is wrong with the U.S., which detracts from the story lines. I recently came across the Magical Cats Mystery series by Sofie Kelly, which I enjoyed. Some of the Cat Who... books were okay.

I loved "Homer's Odyssey" and "Making the Rounds with Oscar".

There is a book of short stories called "Cats in Space" that is very good.  I heard them reading one of the stories on the PBS station for the blind yesterday.  Of course there is always the David Weber series about Honor Harrington and her treecat Nimitz.  Terry Pratchett has cats in his Discworld series quite often. 

Cats in Space... that sounds realy cute! I'm going to have to look those up.

Ibiscribe said:

Cats in Space... that sounds realy cute! I'm going to have to look those up.

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It is a Baen Book, edited by Bill Fawcett.  I went to their website to see if it was in their free download library, but it isn't.  "In space, no one can hear you meow"  Look in the oldest, scruffiest used book store in your area and you may find it.

Chicken Soup for The Cat Lovers Soul

Bad Cat!!

!

The Cat Bible


Cats Incredible!
True stories of heroic cats,, very amazing!!!!!

I am so happy to find this thread.    Well done EmilyMayWicha!

I have  a few cat books, most of which were given as presents, and some more practical ones that I have bought my self over the years.....

I too have 'Bad Cat' and it gave me a good few laughs one Christmas. Not unlike our own bad cat thread!

Practical:

 
Looks at understanding cat behaviour through a series of chapters. Uses author experience of her own cats and 'case histories'. Covers new kittens, scaredy cats, aggressive cats, indoor cats, multi-cat households, 'weird' cats, human/cat bond, elderly and disabled cats, and coping with bereavement. Like it says on the cover, I found it fascinating, funny, heart warming and tear-jerking!  It also provided me with an understanding of one of my previous cats' behaviour where all else had failed!


One of many general cat care reference boks. It gives basic health check and first aid information as well as basic stuff about breeds and bringing your new cat home.

Less practical but fascinating and fun to read:


Written as if  manual for the new arrival in your home, translated from feline for humans to be able to read. Heartwarming and very funny. Oh, and a few cute pictures to boot.


It's quite old now but it is a rather nice look at understanding the cat's senses, development, and attempts to understand their world and behaviour from a time when not many people thought about non-human creatures in this way.

Fun

http://www.amazon.com/Ernie-Photogr...e+a+photographer's+memoir&tag=&tag=thecatsite

What it says on the cover!  One feline flat mate documenting his experiences of human co-habitation through short text and photographs  Hilarious. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Triumphant-...63188&sr=1-1&keywords=the+triumphant+cat&tag=

A beautifully presented and illustrated collection of essays and poems about our feline companions - as if collated by Marmaduke Skidmore, Esq. 

I must credit my older brother here as he and his wife have spent many years rooting out cat books and gifted most of the above non-reference books to me.  I have enjoyed them all and found most of them useful in some way or another. Even if has only been laughing till I cried. 

I hope someone else finds some enjoyable reading in this lot and I look forward to seeing some more posts. 

Just found this thread. I am in the UK so our books may be different from those across the pond!

As for the cat books I like - well, I am always attracted to humour - fiction or non-fiction.  Terry Pratchett is a big author in the UK - he wrote The Unadulterated Cat - a non-fiction amusing book on cats.

I also like anthologies which give snippets of literature and poetry (well I am a writer!) - there are some lovely ones. My favourite is A Collection of Cats Tales - a Cat Lovers Anthology (paintings by Ditz) 1993

There are many cat behaviour books - Bruce Fogle's If Cats Could Talk is written by a top London vet (who was born and grew up in the USA). There is a great new book called Cat Sense: The Feline Enigma Revealed by John Bradshaw - a scientist at the forefront of research on cat behaviour at a top UNK university.

There has been a huge fashion in the last 3 years or so in the UK for the sort of 'journey' books about 'how a cat saved my life/family/marriage/health/sanity' etc. Personally I dislike most of those and many are badly written too - just band-wagon jumping initiated by publishers. However, the most famous of them all A Streetcat Named Bob is worth a look.

For a quick and cheap guide to breeds the Collins Gen CATS book is invaluable - it lists all breeds in a pocket sized format.

There are a great many picture and photo books - many way too schmaltzy and sentimental for my tastes. There is an author and company called Helen Exley which produces lots of such books. Utterly Gorgeous Cats has a lot of photos.

I have just found another wonderful photo book with black and white photos from a Swedish photographer from the 60s and 70s: The Essential Cat by Thomas Wester (foreword by Doris Lessing).

So many books for children - Gobbolino the Witch's Cat is a goodie for fiction; for non-fiction  and true life tales try Bumble The Brave Kitten.

Wow, that's a lot of books! I own them all and have bought most for cat boot sales (like yard sales in the US) for pennies.

Happy reading! Feel free to comment on A Cat Called Dog here or on the usual book site, if you wish!

@kitten. I loved A Cat Named Bob. What luck he had. I've loads of cat books too but I have to look at their names. I love Derek Landen? A mistake. Please correct me. He made me laugh so much.
@EmilyMayWilcher. I didn't like the book about Dewey. He's lovely but she wrote too much about her illnesses. Who's interested. Tell more about Dewey and less about you.

Ooh sorry.
@kitten. Where in England do you live?

Stewball - I agree. So many cat books focus on the people and their illnesses and disorders, not the cats.

I call these books 'journey' books and they are a real trend at the moment so a lot of writers are jumping on the bandwagon - with true-life tales of how a cat saved me/my health/my sanity/my library etc. Very mawkish and schmaltzy too, most of them, and really very badly written, even by ghost writers.

The exception is the book that started the trend - also ghost-written - a Streetcat Named Bob. That's a fantastic tale about a man and his super-brainy cat. I know the area where he lived - Tottenham - which is a very poor and unpleasant area of London (the riots of 2011 started there).

I do however think that with a sequel and a kids' version, there are really milking it now - and the vast majority of the proceeds are not going to James Bowen either, but to the publishers - people get very defensive if one dares criticise anything to do with that book, as though any critic is attacking Bob! Not true - but some of us know the realities of publishing. It comes down to money in the end, basically, and considering the millions of sales and now a film to come, James must be getting less than 1% of the profits.

Still, maybe I'll write a non-fiction pity party sob story book next year - they seem all the rage, and it's far easier to write a soppy soapy and twee 'true' story than to use one's imagination and write fiction, which starts with a white page of paper yawning back at you! Maybe I'll focus on how a cat helped me mend my car, or how little Bumble the cat helped me to like fish. Who knows? And the list of disorders is endless so I am sure I've got a few if I look hard enough...

@ACatCalledDog. You are so right. A street cat named Bob was lovely. I really liked the bit where Bob taught himself to use the loo instead of going downstairs. I think James Bowen gives to charity as well. We all know that he won't get all he deserves but at least he's off the streets now and life is better for him. But about the book supposedly about Dewey was ridiculous. I wanted to know about him and to be honest I didn't really see what was so marvelous about him that deserved writing about.

A friend just loaned me a book called 'Talk to the Tail'. by Tom Cox. Anyone heard of this one?

I have. He's written more.

I'm surprised Warriors by Erin Hunter hasn't been mentioned. Its a saga for children and teens, but I know many adults (myself and my husband included) who love those books.
I haven't read any of the above books. I don't read many things that involve humans.

Awaiting Abyss said:

I'm surprised Warriors by Erin Hunter hasn't been mentioned. Its a saga for children and teens, but I know many adults (myself and my husband included) who love those books.
I haven't read any of the above books. I don't read many things that involve humans.

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Not in this thread, but if you will search the site for Warriors, you will find several threads that discuss them extensively.