The Cat Who Saved Books

A love letter to those who savour the smell of paperbacks and the act of getting lost in the isles of dimly lit second hand bookstores.

I don't want to be unfair to this book because I did end up enjoying it. But it starts off incredibly dull.

Nothing is ever really explained; the author preferring to leave things up to interpretation. If you aren't a fan of ambiguity, this probably isn't a read for you. Although it would be a good book to read with kids, as the stories are short and the end message is worth the read.

I just didn't care much for this one.

Not at all what I was expecting. Each of the ‘adventures' ended in anticlimactic conversations that put forth idealistic truths about books. Which honestly anyone who picked up this book would probably already believe to a certain extent. This book felt like it was meant to lecture people. Not fun.

Through four encounters with strange book abusers, the young shut-in Rintaro Natsuki is guided by talking tabby Tiger to explore his relationship with his recently departed grandfarther, books and, above all, his own nature.

This is a very charming little book with a light and playful tone and simple plot that still manages to be engaging and, at times, a little emotional. Its four critiques of ways of engaging with books feel like they hit spot on for anyone who's spent any length of time in reading-adjacent worlds like book-tube or productivity-obsessed podcasting.

My only slight niggles with the book are, firstly, that the cat of the title is only really very lightly sketched out as a character. He is really just a devise to push Rintaro through the four encounters and doesn't play much of a role beyond kicking off each journey before largely disappearing for before the action gets going. This isn't a big issue in and of itself, but I picked up this book because of the cat so I was disappointed. That just isn't really what this book is about.

Secondly, some of the writing is a bit clunky and awkward. Not so much that it's overly distracting and it's always possible this is a product of translation, but the book is definitely not the most beautiful prose you've ever read.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable story which should leave you thinking a bit more critically about your own relationship to reading. I'd definitely recommend spending an afternoon on this small volume as time well spent.

3.5
a sweet easy fluffy read - didn't think too deeply about it but enjoyed it and its straightforward perspective on books

I picked this book as the starting point for my reading journey since it had been sitting unopened in my room for a long time and I thought that the plot itself might suit my scenario accurately. Maybe if I read this book, I would find a way to enjoy literature, and while we're at it, end up reading a really good one in the process.

To contextualize, this book is about a "hikikomori" (someone who keeps themselves isolated from social life) named Rintaro who inherits his grandfather's second-hand library after his passing. Suddenly a cat named Tora appears and tells him that he has to save the books whose souls have been lost (as it appears in the book) by their owners in three (actually four) labyrinths. Rintaro has to convince these owners that they have to learn to appreciate books and to not deteriorate their powers. With "convince" I literally mean that he has to talk them through about it. The climaxes of every chapter consist of, to put it simply, discussions Rintaro and these people have with each other. That sounds like quite the anticlimactic climax, but for the most part the book creates tension fine.

The biggest issue I have with this book is that it is never explained why he has to save the books. Tora randomly shows up in his library, tells him about the books, Rintaro says yes and that's about it. Even the idea itself of the books being saved is pretty bad, because what Rintaro does here is, fundamentally, telling the owners, and consequently the readers, the "correct" way to read books. The reality is that there isn't a "correct" way to read like what the book says. Literature is an art form, and anybody can enjoy it how the like it. It doesn't really matter that there's someone who reads a book once and never again like in the first labyrinth, because that's his own way to enjoy literature and that's okay. Using music, a type of art I'm more acquainted with, as an example, is that there's people who only like listening to it on vinyls, CDs or any other physical release, which is perfectly fine. There's also people who don't like listening to full albums, which is also perfectly fine. The same thing happens with books, and even I know that. The second labyrinth consists of a man that cuts pages to make summaries, but if that's his own way to enjoy this art, then why stop him? A justification the book presents is that when this happens to books, they lose their souls. But that isn't really true either, and even if it was, it wouldn't really affect anyone else at all. I also find it a little weird that Tora mentioned that almost reaching the ending climax of the book, almost like the author forgot to mention that before the rising action even started...

When they enter the fourth labyrinth, the lady shows Rintaro the negative consequences of his actions done to the previous labyrinths. That's when I tought that the book would tackle the above issue, but sadly, it didn't. Rintaro wins by telling her a generic fact about how books bring empathy, the lady approves, and the action (well, barely) finishes. In the end, Rintaro goes back to his library, Sayo gets safely rescued, and an obvious love relationship gets implied between the two. It was an boring ending to be honest. For me an ending has to be impactful, but this was just painfully uninteresting. I expected Rintaro to learn to face his inevitable future by leaving behind his library and adapting to live his new life with his aunt, but no. She just says he can stay there and that was it. In real life things don't usually happen like that. Quite dissapointing.

I was skeptical at first when I started reading this that it was going to be too lighthearted for me. Almost like a kid's book. I thought I had to give it time and maybe as the story progressed it would tackle more challenging topics. But, again, no. It was too simple for me. I don't know if the book was boring, but the young adult genre maybe isn't for me.

This taught me barely anything new about books. I ended up continuing to read it not because I wanted to know what happened next, but because I wanted to finish reading a 200 page book. Maybe the fact that I read it with a Spanish translation made it worse. Wait! There's something else I forgot to mention. The book was never really about a cat who loved books. Yes, you could consider Tora, but the only thing he does is telling Rintaro what to do and then leaving him to do basically everything by himself. I didn't even like Tora that much. Not recommended.

I wanted to give this 4 stars because I do love books and the concept was excellent. But the tone of the book was just a little heavy handed and the “message” a little on the nose. Characters also felt a little flat. I also acknowledge that this is a translation and some of my issues could be related to that.

It was still a good read and I am glad I experienced it though.

The love for books and the way you take care of them and the way you think of books and the perspective changes after reading these books. It brings back the real reader book lover in you.

The story begins with the demise of Rintaros grandpa who was his only guardian. His grandpa owned a second hand bookshop where one can find the second hand classics and best novels of various periods. Rintaro loves reading books but he was aloof and an introverted person who believes that he doesn't have any talents and was not going to his high school after his grandfather's death. All the last rites were done with help of his distant relative aunt who will come back to take him to her city.

Are you thinking about when the cat will come into the picture? Will come in a few moments. There are few schoolmates like his class rep Sayo and his senior who cared for him and visited the bookshop once in a while to check on him. He thought at first it was a dream seeing a cat in his bookstore which was talking to him and asking for help to save the books.

Half Heartedly he accepts to help the cat and goes to the labyrinth. He successfully saves the books that are imprisoned. Each time we read a book we find something new and understand a few more things from it. Atlast, The Tabby cat was one who made him a confident guy who can speak up.

I loved the way the author has translated this great work.

There were four labyrinths from where he saved the books and have different stories to it. I loved the way Rintaro answered those people who questioned each labyrinth. Books can give us knowledge, wisdom, values, a view of the world and so much more. The joy of seeing things in a whole new way. Books have tremendous Power“.

An odd little book all about the love of books, with a talking cat and labyrinths of lost books and book lovers waiting to be saved. What more could you want? Quite simple, but effective. Very quotable and heartwarming.

“Reading isn't only for pleasure or entertainment. Sometimes you need to examine the same lines deeply, read the same sentences over again. Sometimes you sit there, head in hands, only progressing at a painstakingly slow pace. And the result of all this hard work and careful study is that suddenly you're there and your field of vision expands. It's like finding a great view at the end of a long climbing trail.”

3.5. Sweet, but a little heavy-handed