How Long?

"A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat."

~ Hugh Maclennan

See the Cynsations blog for an interview with Leonard Marcus on what makes a book "stand the test of time." I don't think it has to do with cats, although Millions of Cats sure has. And Time Cat. And Catwings.  

Also, apparently, the ex libris art of bookplates often outlives the books in which they are pasted (in terms of collector value.)  Thanks to Gurney Journey for the link.

Finally, in addition to Jama's rich feast of a post about Charles Dickens last week, I was intrigued by this article in the Guardian: Why are we still reading Dickens? I like the answer given there---of course, it's about his characters---but I have to add it's also because of the freakin' great names he gave those characters: Smallweed, Jeremiah Flintwinch, Wackford Squeers, Pip, Uriah Heep . . . was there ever a writer so gifted at the insidious power of the aptly bestowed name? 

(By the way, the writer of the Guardian article calls these sort of names aptronyms. Although it may not give my book as many lives as a cat is entitled to, it was a technique I tried to use, but not overdo, in christening a few of the characters in the somewhat large-casted drama that is Operation Yes.)

Classify This

While looking for Children's Book Week posts, I stumbled across 025.431: The Dewey Blog. They had a Book Week post last year, in which the blog editors named their favorite childhood books. (Also posts on such things as the Classification Club and Fibs.) No post this year.

But...look what I found:

From this post about a cat named Dewey Readmore Books, a link to the Library Cats Map, which tracks felines who reside in or pussyfoot around libraries.

One of my favorite map entries is Magnificat, who was in residence at the Graduate Theological Union Library in Berkeley in the 1980s. (Their library catalog is named "Grace," by the way.) And in France, a cat named Starsky lives at the Médiathèque Monnaie Romans sur Isère Novels.

If your library had a cat (or any pet) what would you name it? Right now, I'm going with Rhyme and Reason, a pair of kittens. Or a blue lizard named Lang.