The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“I think the power of books is that they teach us to care about others. Empathy—that’s the power of books.”

Being a lover of both cats and books, how could I not fall for this story? Although, the title is somewhat of a misnomer since the cat (view spoiler)[isn’t the one who “saves” the books (hide spoiler)]. I think some tonal elements got inevitably lost in translation, but overall this was such a sweet book. The premise is straightforward and simply told—not much worth writing home about. What I loved was all the beautiful wisdom nuggets about books and reading, such as:

“It’s not true that the more you read, the more you see of the world. No matter how much knowledge you cram into your head, unless you think with your own mind, walk with your own feet, the knowledge you acquire will never be anything more than empty and borrowed.”

And:

“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.”

I even found myself ruefully nodding in agreement with some of the cynical half-truths of the book mutilators:

“And for those who never actually pick up a book, whether they can’t get their hands on one, or can’t be bothered to read, we produce information arranged by bullet point. Titles like The Five Requirements for Success or The Eight Techniques to Get Ahead in Life. People never catch on that they’re being duped, that books like these are never going to help them get ahead... Nobody’s interested in truth or ethics or philosophy. People are worn out from living. All they want is either to be stimulated or healed.”

Thankfully, as Rintaro points out, even if books are brutalized and taken for granted, they will never die out completely. They’re too enduring for that.

“Books can give us knowledge, wisdom, values, a view of the world, and so much more. The joy of learning something you didn’t know before, and seeing things in a whole new way is exciting. But somehow I believed they gave us something more important than that... Books teach us how to care about others.”

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𝓟.𝓢. This review was crossposted from Goodreads because it contains actual thoughts rather than a typically facetious single-sentence remark. View all my book ratings and pointless takes on Goodreads or The StoryGraph.