DAY 4 - YOUR FAVORITE BOOK

I have to admit I'm not much of a reader and while there's nothing in the title of this entry forbidding certain subject genres, I've always taken "book" to mean a work of fiction and that's where I'm gonna go with this.

I have read very few works of fiction since graduation. I blame that not entirely on the "being forced to read" for school; but rather, being forced to read solely from certain genres. Perhaps had I been introduced to science-fiction in high school or, perhaps more radically, to books that are actually funny...I would have a far larger mental library from which to choose. I didn't even know works of fiction could be funny until college. I believe it was in Good Omens that I first encountered genuine funny in books. But that won't be my favorite book.

Instead, that honor goes to: Space Cat by Ruthven Todd.

This brings me back to fourth grade. My teacher had a library in miniature in the classroom for us to read during, well...reading time. I remember no other books from that year except this one. I read it over and over and even jealously kept it in my desk so no one else could read it. Near the end of the school year, the teacher had us all return the books. I swear I didn't mean to, but I had completely forgotten to take it out of my desk. So instead, I secreted it into my bookbag and took it home where it would remain until sometime during high school when Mom would unceremoniously throw it out during one of her cleaning sprees to rid us of old junk we weren't using/playing with anymore.

I specifically remember the book introducing me to the verbal phrase, "had had". When I first saw it, I thought it was a misprint and delighted pointing it out to Mom who then showed me that it was indeed, a correct expression.

The story itself involved a stray cat being found by a pilot who would go on to be on the first piloted mission to the moon. The cat was christened "Flyball" and somehow the space agency (I forget the justification) deemed the cat worthy of being sent into space and being the first animal to walk on the moon. Some of the science was vaguely sound, like zero gravity and the moon being rather desolate. But it did feature life of sorts on the moon inside of caves. And it was these "sticky buttons" which Flyball would ultimately use to save the life of the astronaut whose helmet had sprung a leak after an accident. The cat was a hero folks! I'm sure it can be found summarized better elsewhere, but that's what I remember from a book I probably haven't read since 1988.

Space Cat was truly one of the few books I have ever delighted in reading not only more than once, but many times over. Something I can't say of any other books I have read since then. I highly recommend it to the 9 year old in you. :-)

(originally posted to That Other Journal on December 21, 2009)