The Cat Who Saved Books

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.