1,001 Things You Always Wanted to Know about Cats

Interesting read if you're a cat lover like myself. I've read numerous books on cats and this one seemed to really help me out.

We cat lovers can't seem to get enough of cats, even books about cats, right? I enjoyed this one immensely, got it for my birthday (Dec 3), so curled up by the fire with cat in my lap and book in hand and proceeded to learn so many facts and legends that I ended up taking the book to bed. (My husband is used to this by now.) It is fun to pick up and open just anywhere but I read it more or less straight through, utterly fascinated by some of the tidbits about cat behavior, even learned some new things about the feline body. (Did you know cats have whiskers on the backs of their front legs? Funny I'd never noticed it before, but it's true.) Some of the myths and legends are really fascinating, particularly the one about the apostle Thomas. One omission: every science fiction buff will wonder why the book made no mention of "Schrodinger's cat" or Robert Heinlein's "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls." Maybe some future edition will include it!

Well, if you don't already know what an ailurophile is, you will after reading this book, plus a thousand other things about cats, present and past. My husband and I have eight cats, and I think we've owned every breed there is, but I still found lots of fascinating cat info I never knew before. The book covers all breeds (I get the feeling the author isn't wild about Siamese, but I can overlook that), plus lots of factoids about their mating habits, their appearance in myths and legends and literature, famous people who kept cats (and a few poor souls who really hated them, like the composer Brahms).

I love any book about cats, but this one is kind of special because it's written with a sort of light touch--lots of good solid information here, but handled well, often humorously. I especially like the section about all the myths and legends (and nonsense) relating to cats. My kids got into the section about cats that appear in ads, TV shows, movies, cartoons, etc. (Did you know the cartoon cat Sylvester was named 'Thomas' in his first appearances?) I won't say I love this book as much as I love cats, but it's a close second.

My wife and I both fell in love with this book from the moment we saw it on the store shelf. Put simply, it is a collection of 1,001 one-paragraph tidbits about everything related to cats--different breeds, the cat anatomy, habits (good and bad), cats in history, famous people who loved cats, "catty" words and phrases, even a section about cat in movies, cartoons, and TV. As a longtime cat lover, I thought I knew cats pretty well, but I'm a lot wiser after reading this. (Finally I understand why our cats like to knead my belly.) My personal favorite was the section dealing with cats in history, particularly their connection with the ancient Egyptians.