“What Cats Do” Book Tag

The “What Cats Do” book tag is a typical themed book tag based around our feline overlords and their habits, and it was created by Kate at MeltingPotsandOtherCalamities. I found it on The Reading Addict‘s blog, so I’m doing it!

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1. PURR — Cats do this when they’re happy or relaxed. What book makes you happy or relaxed?

Soul Music
Disc World Book 16
by Terry Pratchett

Published 19 May 1994
Edition Shown: 1 October 2005
by Corgi

Genre: Comic Fantasy, Absurdism
Page Count: 432
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Be careful what you wish for. You never know who might be listening.

There’s no getting away from it. From whichever angle, Death is a horrible, inescapable business. But someone’s got to do it. So if Death decides to take a well-earned moment to uncover the meaning of life and discover himself in the process, then there is going to be a void of specific dimensions that needs to be occupied, particularly so when there is trouble brewing in Discworld. There aren’t too many who are qualified to fill Death’s footsteps and it certainly doesn’t help the imminent cataclysm that the one person poised between the mortal and the immortal is only sixteen years old…

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Really any Terry Pratchett novel would do as an answer here, and Good Omens in particular (which he wrote in collaboration with Neil Gaiman) would be a great alternative flagship book to toss up, but Soul Music is the Discworld title that brought me into the fandom and made me love Discworld. There’s great debate in the fandom about whether they should be read in publication order, by some other favoured order, or in whatever order you get your hands on them. I’m firmly in favour of reading them in whatever order you want or whatever order you can. I was not at all lost or turned off jumping into Discworld with book 16, and although I did go back and read book 1 next, I have not attempted to read them in any particular order since.

I love Pratchett’s humour and his unique style. Some of his contemporaries have learned well from his example, for sure, but Pratchett is the original master of this type of adult fantasy. I read Stroud first (Bartimaeus trilogy) and I loved all the tangents Bartimaeus indulged in through footnotes. Imagine my complete joy when I found Pratchett’s books doing the same thing! (Obviously Pratchett did it first.)

The Discworld novels definitely don’t shy away from difficult or dark subject matter, but every single book is full of lighthearted and fun moments as well, and even the heavier themes and lessons are handled with an absurd sense of humour that makes it easy to read and absorb.

Here’s a fanart piece I did of Discworld in 2020. Want to watch the timelapse video?

2. SLEEP — What book put you to sleep or was just boring?

I’m tempted to put up a photo of some mathematics textbook here. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy math, I do, but those books aren’t exactly entertaining.

My real answer is also a textbook, though. When you study for a degree in history, eventually you’ll have to take a course in historiography. What’s that? It’s the study of historians. Who recorded history, why, and who did they record it for? It’s as close as you’ll get to a sociology class while still selecting your course offerings from the History department catalogue. We had three books for this class, but the one I’d like to shake a few sticks at was a deceptively tiny volume about the history of history. I may be wrong, so I’m not going to put up pictures and links, but I believe it was A Global History of Modern Historiography by Georg G. Iggers. The edition we were using opened with a chapter-long essay on epistemology (the study of knowledge.) It was the single driest, most boring thing I have ever read, and I have since read technical manuals on microcontrollers.

3. SEEMS TO PLAY NICE… UNTIL THE CLAWS ARE OUT — Which book had the biggest plot twist(s)?

I’m very tempted to answer with Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer like I frequently do for plot twist questions, but let’s switch it up.

Mockingjay
The Hunger Games Book Three
by Suzanne Collins

Published 24 August 2010
by Scholastic Press

Genre: YA Dystopian
Page Count: 398
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My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss’s family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss’s willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels’ Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.

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About half way through this book you’ll find that everything, and I do mean everything is turned on its head and runs at maximum speed in the opposite direction.

4. CUDDLES — Which book character would you give a hug to?

Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry

Published 24 April 1989
Edition shown September 1990
by Yearling

Genre: MG Historical Fiction
Page Count: 137
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Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think about life before the war. But it’s now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching in their town.

The Nazis won’t stop. The Jews of Denmark are being ”relocated,“ so Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be part of the family.

Then Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission. Somehow she must find the strength and courage to save her best friend’s life. There is no turning back now.

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I want to squeeze Ellen Rosen so bad!

5. CATNIP — Which book gave you warm and fuzzy feels?

All Bags Go to Cleveland
by C. S. Hale

Published 21 August 2020

Genre: Paranormal Romantic Comedy
Page Count: 338
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Angela Grimalke appears more blonde bombshell than the gremlin she is. But there is no denying her supernatural truth after her clumsiness gets her fired from her modeling career. Forced to work for her family’s upscale airline, she spends her days slinging luggage and wishing her parents would get off her back about finding a nice gremlin guy to settle down with.

Relationships were the last thing on her mind, not that her family would accept that.

For Dave Ford his frequent business travel made it next to impossible for him to find a woman who could tolerate his chaotic schedule. Which is why he appreciates Angela. Neither of them are looking for love, but Dave feeds Angela’s addiction for chocolate while she provides him with the chaos to keep him on his toes.

However, as Angela’s parents bombard her with a parade of “eligible” gremlin men at their weekly family dinners, she finds herself torn between who she longs to be and her family’s expectations. Will she give in and live the life of magic they want for her? Or risk it all by to confessing to Dave that she isn’t human?

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A gremlin working the departures counter for an airline, whose magic runs wild and causes minor mishaps when she doesn’t use it, learns to love and accept love from a frequent flyer who loves chaos. What’s not to love?

6. CAT BREEDS — What are you favorite books?

The above is my newest favourite, fore sure. Other favourites:

7. GETTING THE CAT— How did you find your favorite book(s)?

• All Bags Go to Cleveland – Blog tour with Goddess Fish Promotions
• The Night Circus – It caught my eye while I was helping swap out stock in the books & magazines section of the grocery store I used to work at.
• Defenders of the Dead – I devoured the Jedi Apprentice entire series when it was new, 1999-2001ish
• A Wizard of Earthsea – I liked the cover when I spotted it at a book store around 1998 or so. My peers in the non-Honour English classes read this one in 2002 and they were thoroughly confused by my different edition when I brought it to school for casual reading.
• Metamorphosis – Raided my mother’s Trek collection sometime in high school.

8. VET’S OFFICE — What is your least favourite book?

Ulysses by James Joyce. Anyone who tells you this is their favourite book is lying to you. Nobody likes (or can process) an unabridged day in the boring life of an average man written in stream of consciousness.

9. BEING IN PLACES THEY SHOULDN’T — What is your least favorite cliché?

Miscommunication tropes, or enemies-to-lovers.

10. GOOD, OLD CARDBOARD BOX — What is the most underrated book series?

I have no idea what the most underrated series is, but a series I love that I never see other people reading is Elemental Masters by Mercedes Lackey.

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