A review by yars_reading_corner
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa

5.0

I LOVEEE how wisely this book has been written, there is a lot of modern Japanese societal norms mentioned in it but also, it was definitely written by someone who loves books and there are some coats that I just loved so I'll be blunt and highlight them down below;

“Here at the world’s number one publishing company, we don’t publish books to inform or teach people. We print the books that society wants. We don’t care about issues such as messages that need to be imparted, or philosophy that needs to be handed down to the next generation. We don’t care about any harsh reality or difficult truths. Society isn’t interested in things like that. Publishers don’t need to worry about what they should be telling the world; they need to understand what the world wants to hear.”

“Your feelings about a book don’t determine its value. The number of copies in circulation does. In other words, in our society it is the banknote that is the arbiter of value.”

“Books teach us how to care about others.”

“Books are filled with human thoughts and feelings. People suffering, people who are sad or happy, laughing with joy. By reading their words and their stories, by experiencing them together, we learn about the hearts and minds of other people besides ourselves. Thanks to books, it’s possible to learn not only about the people around us every day, but people living in totally different worlds.”