The Cat Who Saved Books
Sōsuke Natsukawa
The Cat Who Saved Books is a heart-warming story about finding courage, caring for others – and the tremendous power of books. Grandpa used to say it all the time: 'books have tremendous power'. But what is that power really? Natsuki Books was a tiny second-hand bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, every one crammed full of wonderful books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his grandfather had created. He spent many happy hours there, reading whatever he liked. It was the perfect refuge for a boy who tended to be something of a recluse. After the death of his grandfather, Rintaro is devastated and alone. It seems he will have to close the shop. Then, a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears and asks Rintaro for help. The cat needs a book lover to join him on a mission. This odd couple will go on three magical adventures to save books from people who have imprisoned, mistreated and betrayed them. Finally, there is one last rescue that Rintaro must attempt alone . . . Sosuke Natsukawa's international bestseller, translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.
Publication Year: 2017
(⚠️ possible spoiler: contains key quote from 88% and discussion of the major theme explored through the book.) "Books teach us how to care about others... Empathy - that's the power of books." This immediately reminded me of a post I saw online a while back that pointed out that many men (especially when books are discussed in the corporate world) will say that if they read they primarily read nonfiction. The poster's take was that reading fiction is actually a big piece of how to learn empathy because you experience stories from POVs unlike your own. Then, because there's this weird stigma that fiction and fantasy are somehow viewed as frivolous and feminine, and that reading history or various theory and the like carries a greater social capital and appearance of intelligence, men who forgo reading the former and only seek the perceived status conferred by the latter never get to "practice" empathy through reading and are therefore less empathetic in their day to day lives. I don't know nearly enough about whether data supports the gender-based generalization on who reads what, but anecdotally this absolutely rings true for what I've observed in my life and what friends have shared. Would love to hear what others think on this, especially if experiences differ across industries where reading certain genres carries different perceived value.
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