The Cat Who Saved Books, with bonus cat

The Cat Who Looked Disdainful

I've been doing a fair bit of reading lately, likely as a way to hide from reality. Last night I finished The Cat Who Saved Books, a book I bought because I'm a sucker for books with talking cats. It was not a great book; I found myself thinking repeatedly that it read a lot like a screenplay for a Studio Ghibli film. It contains a lot of very detailed descriptions of complex settings that would be so fine on screen: elaborate manor houses and complicated office buildings with endless staircases, and, in contrast, the old-fashioned secondhand bookshop where the magical cat first appears to the protagonist, a hikikomori high school boy who fidgets with his glasses when he's trying to think. Predictably enough, there is also a more social classmate who tries to get him to actually attend class. I'm sure I've seen this pair more than once, though the girl is usually in the lead. 

  So, it had its flaws, but it is very much a defense of books and why they're worth saving. It's towards the end that the boy, Rintaro Natsuki, confronts the personification of a book that has been around for two thousand years. She's not happy: 

 "Even I, who for many centuries have been read by people all over the world, have rarely met anyone who takes me seriously. Even now, I'm still touted as 'the most widely read book in the world,' but in reality, no one cares about me any more. I'm locked away, cut into pieces, sold at a discount. . . . I'm losing my power. I used to talk about all sorts of important things with all sorts of people, but now I'm starting to forget about what I used to talk about . . ." 

It takes a few pages, but Rintaro manages to work out why it is that books matter, and it's this bit that, catlike, saved the book for me: 

“Books are filled with human thoughts and feelings. People suffering, people who are sad or happy, laughing with joy. By reading their words and their stories, by experiencing them together, we learn about the hearts and minds of other people besides ourselves. Thanks to books, it’s possible to learn not only about the people around us every day, but people living in totally different worlds. 

“Don’t hurt anyone. Never bully people weaker than yourself. Help out those in need. Some would say that these rules are obvious. But the truth is, the obvious is no longer obvious in today’s world. What’s worse is that some people even ask why. They don’t understand why they shouldn’t hurt other people. It’s not logical. But if they read books they will understand. It’s far more important than using logic to explain something. Human beings don’t live alone, and a book is a way to show them that. 

“I think the power of books is that—that they teach us to care about others. It’s a power that gives people courage and also supports them in turn. 

 “Because you seem to have forgotten, I’m going to say it as loud as I can. Empathy—that’s the power of books.”

 --from pages 175 – 176 of The Cat Who Saved Books, by Sotsuke Matsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai