As a reminder, I am reviewing one book each day until Christmas, in no particular order.
Each choice is special in its own way. All would make great gifts for your cat addicted book lovers. Or your book addicted cat lovers.
Why cat books? Several reasons, really. I adore cats. Cats appear in most of my fiction. And I enjoy promoting cat books for the holidays, because I frequently give or get them as gifts myself. And finally, so many people have a cat, that cat themed gifts are an industry. You can’t go wrong.
I skipped yesterday, so I am trying to catch up now. Today I am reviewing “Cat Cam,” by Cooper, Michael, and Deirdre Cross for Day 21.
This book is older. It’s a thin paperback flip book, and it is cat photography, but it is a little different. This photography is by the cat, not a human photographer. That makes it special and one I really wanted to include.
For cat lovers, we might wonder what they get up to when they are out and about. This Seattle family put a camera on Cooper – a big ginger tabby – once a week for a year to get his cat’s eye perspective on his world. This book gives us a window into Cooper’s life in a wide variety of pictures.
They are a little surprising until we remember that Cooper experiences the world from a knee level, in the bushes perspective. The lawn flamingos are giant. The grass brushes the camera lens. The kitchen counter looms into the sky.
Another unexpected thing about this book is how artistic many of these photos are. There’s a beautiful still of the snow on Seattle bushes. There is a gorgeous photo of the family Christmas tree lights creating reflecting dots. There is a ankle level shot of the sun kissed grass. There are also some touching photos of his human family members, as well as random shots of the dogs and cats he encounters.
Cooper may not be activating the camera, but some of these photos turned out great. So much so that Cooper did have his own photography exhibition back around the time the book released.
I like a couple of other things about this book. We do also get some pictures of Cooper himself wearing his camera. If you’re going to get a cat book, there has to be a few cat photos. I also like the fact that there’s a call to spay and neuter. Obviously Cooper is an outdoor cat – not something I tend to prefer, but some cats have their own preference – so altering is an important step. I also like that a portion of the proceeds goes to cat charity.
This is a fun book for all the reasons I mentioned, so I recommend checking it out. The downside is that Cooper did pass away earlier this year from kidney disease – he was elderly, since the book came out in 2010, so it isn’t possible to continue to follow him. But he has a Facebook page and a website – so if you’re taken with his photos, they are available for purchase.
