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The title,
Cats Who Blog, says it all: a worldwide roundup of
blogs written by cats, complete with feline profiles, gorgeous
color photos, and selected blog entries. It's obvious that
the editors are cat aficionados; note the use of "who" rather
than "that" in the title—the editors have lifted these
cats to human-writer status.
There
are many LiveJournal cats featured—not surprising, given
the youthful, irreverent demographic of that particular blog
site. Because of the nature of the LiveJournal commenting
feature, the published entries feature extended conversations
between users, many of which become quite bizarre. Often,
a cat will have a long dialog with its care-taker or "meowmie,"
a play on the word mommy (it's almost always a mom and not
a dad). These conversations are featured as screenshots with
highlights called out in diagrammatic fashion. In cat-to-cat
conversation, topics covered include prey, their prowess at
tracking and capturing prey, and their anger at lack of available
prey. The cats brag gangsta style about how they terrorize
their people by leaving hairballs in shoes, stealing defrosting
meat off kitchen counters, and pushing prized possessions
off shelves. Unlike human blogs hosted by LiveJournal, there
is rarely any "flouncing" or calling of the "wah-mbulance"
on the cat journals; cats generally leave their snark at the
door. In many ways, the cats behave more civilly than people.
The book
also features special sections, like "Cats and Culture," focusing
on cats whose blogs have a cultural commentary slant. m_cat
from LiveJournal is a standout blog in this category, as is
the feline_news community (unfortunately, no new photos are
available of m_cat, as she is dead and blogging from the beyond).
The Paws and Effect blog gets its own special section, being
the first advice column by cats for cats and humans. Their
featured section on web classics is fascinating reading for
those who were not noodling around in the early days of the
internet, as well as for those who want to relive it. Readers
will get a big laugh from Hank the Snorkel Cat (1996) and
the Litter Box cam, a satire of the cam girl craze from the
late 1990s. The blog also includes a section on hookups: stories
about cats who have met and entered exclusive relationships
via the blogosphere—despite the fact that most cats are
neutered.
Being
a collection of the best of blogging cats, this anthology
includes no cutesy bloggers. The cute that is included, however,
is meant to be a satirical commentary of how people pretend
cats think—this is, cats creating mock human-made cat
macros. There is also thankfully little tiresome lolcat speak.
Sadly,
this collection has quite a bit of repetition and overlap
of themes. If these blogs are any indication, cats tend to
have minds that focus on eating, sleeping, and revenge,. Ultimately,
Cats Who Blog doesn't tell us anything we didn't already
know about cats, but it is slightly above the average book
in the already overcrowded genre of feline-related literature.
(April
1, 2008)
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