The Devious Book for Cats: A Parody [Hardcover]

Joe Garden (Author), Janet Ginsburg (Author), Chris Pauls (Author), Anita Serwacki (Author), Scott Sherman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2008

Cats have nine lives. Shouldn’t they be lived to the fullest?

“Domesticated” does not mean “docile.” The ho-hum routine of sleep, eat, eat, and sleep is no way for any creature who ruled Egypt for a millennium to spend her day. It’s high time felines everywhere woke up from their cat naps and grabbed life’s strings with both paws.

The Devious Book for Cats offers today’s discerning kitties words of wisdom and advice on everything they need to know, from in-depth guides on cardboard boxes and catnip to a brief history of the Felinism movement. It provides fail-safe tips on waking a human when you want to get fed, choosing the purr-fect gift, staring like a pro, and making the most of superstitions. It also explains the undeniable allure of the Window, the terrifying specter of the Vacuum, and how you can groom properly in just the scant twenty-four hours allotted each day.

Cats: Discover the devious fun you can have when you’re the one in charge!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A gleeful riff on The Dangerous Book for Boys (and its followers), this collection of feline's-eye-view essays is a mostly winning effort from past and present staffers of parody newspaper The Onion. Less cringe-worthy than its predecessor, The Dangerous Book for Dogs, Garden and the gang focus on a litany of cat quirks and behaviors that should give cat owners a nod and chuckle on practically every page. Including a field guide to cardboard boxes, profiles of famous felines like Garfield ("the ten ton gorilla in the comics room"), the three waves of felinism and an illustrated guide to napping positions, the book lends itself to casual perusal, though cat fanciers will likely consume it in one sitting. Like listening in on cat-to-cat communications, readers are treated to tactics for "getting away with it," explanations of "what's in there?" and the "Legend of the Crazy Cat Lady" (a cat's campfire scare story). Rounded out with original larks like a TV Guide-style program schedule for the window ("4:00 p.m.: Parallel parking. Watch as Susie Crook fails the test again") this funny collection boasts an impressive hit-to-miss ratio while managing to avoid cute overload.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Fluffy and Bonkers wrote this parody without authorization, because since when did a cat need permission for anything?

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1 edition (October 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345508491
• ISBN-13: 978-0345508492
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #548,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh-out-loud funny, November 16, 2008

By 

Susan Keiraleyn (Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Devious Book for Cats: A Parody (Hardcover)

Over the years I've read many supposed-to-be-funny-and-clever little books about cats. This is because I live with a lot of cats and a lot of books, and people tend to think that if you like books and cats, then you certainly must find any book with "cat" in the title to be of significant interest. As a result, birthdays and holidays around here often end up looking like a collection site for a charity book sale drive.

And a lot of those little cat books DO end up going to charity, because frankly, quite a few are neither all that clever nor all that funny, in my opinion. There have been exceptions, but they are just that -- exceptions.

The Devious Book for Cats is one such exception. I received it the other day, and just flipping through and reading random sections left me laughing out loud. Really loud. Quite a few times. Given the current state of the economy and soaring prices for cat food and litter, I must tell you that I have not been in much of a laughing mood lately. The catnip budget around here has suffered quite a bit in recent months, just trying to put kibble on the table, you know. So this book is a welcome mood-brightener.

I like this book so much in fact, that I am ordering several more copies to send as holiday gifts. Anyone familiar with the feline lifestyle should find this book entertaining. The authors, Fluffy and Bonkers, have written an unusually creative, original and inventive guidebook.

And even though I am extremely busy these days watching birds out the window and napping, I am going to sit down on that book and absorb it more fully at my first opportunity.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Holiday must-have for cat owners!, December 12, 2008

By 

Edith Wharton (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Devious Book for Cats: A Parody (Hardcover)

Searching for a holiday gift for the cat-lover in your life? Look no further - this book made me, and my cat, laugh out loud.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars instant classic, November 26, 2008

By 

Dan - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Devious Book for Cats: A Parody (Hardcover)

Short review:

an instant classic! As a cat owner, I think it's brilliant :)