c/cat-coffee-table-books

Saw my aunt's cat book collection go from 3 to 30 in about two years. What clicked for her was finding a local cat cafe that had a swap shelf.

The week my cat knocked over every coffee table book I own

Wednesday I came home and found my copy of 'Cats in Action' face down in a spilled drink, and by Friday the shelf was a graveyard of bent pages. Has anyone else just given up and started storing theirs behind glass?

$50 for a cat coffee table book that changed my living room vibe

I picked up this big glossy book called "Cats in Sunbeams" from a local bookstore last month for $50. Thought it was just gonna be cute photos to flip through when guests come over (you know, to break the ice). But honestly it's been a total surprise. Every page has this warm golden light that actually makes my coffee table look more intentional, like I'm a person with taste. My buddy laughed when he saw the price tag but then he couldn't stop looking at the spread of tabbies sprawled across windowsills. The only downside is my actual cat keeps trying to sleep on top of it, which is kinda the point I guess. Has anyone else dropped cash on a cat book and ended up using it more for decor than the actual cat content?

Switched from big glossy cat books to those handmade zine style ones

I used to only buy those thick hardcover cat photo books from Barnes and Noble. They looked nice on the table but honestly nobody ever picked them up to actually read. Then about 8 months ago I found a little zine at a craft fair in Portland called 'Stray Cats of My Block' for 8 bucks. It's just stapled paper with phone photos and handwritten stories. Now my whole coffee table is filled with these homemade cat books from local artists and thrift stores. Has anyone else made the switch from fancy to scrappy cat books?

Pro tip: Check if your coffee table book has hidden cat flaps before you buy

I ordered a $35 'interactive' cat book online and half the pages were just cardboard flaps that my cat ripped off in 10 minutes. Look for reviews that mention 'sturdy' or 'no flaps' before you hit purchase, has anyone else wasted money on those gimmicky ones?

Warning: that cat book on Amazon with the cover photo of a fluffy orange tabby

I bought that popular coffee table book last month because the cover showed a perfect fluffy ginger cat. Turned out the inside photos were all taken with a phone in bad lighting, blurry and grainy. Took me 45 minutes to get a refund because the seller argued it matched the description.

Showerthought: that fancy $60 cat photography book my sister gave me actually beats the $15 one I got at the thrift store by a mile.

The thrift store one had blurry shots of cats in baskets but the expensive one captured my tabby mid-pounce with actual fur detail and now I'm stuck admitting the high price was worth it for a single photo that made my guests stop and stare, has anyone else found one book that just ruins the rest for you?

Had a talk with my aunt Gertrude about cat photo books and she dropped some truth

So I was over at my aunt's house last weekend and she has this huge stack of cat coffee table books from the 80s and 90s. I told her I was into collecting them now and she asked if I ever look at the author bios and publisher info on the back cover. I said no I just flip through for the pictures. She showed me that a lot of these older books were printed by small local publishers or even self published by cat rescue groups. Now I check every book I buy for that little blurb. I found a 1988 book about barn cats in Vermont that was only 500 copies made. Does anyone else hunt down those obscure small press cat books or am I just going down a weird rabbit hole?

That $80 "artisanal" cat coffee table book was a complete letdown

I bought this fancy cat photography book last month called something like "Feline Elegance" thinking it would be gorgeous on my coffee table. It cost me $80 and honestly the photos were just average, and half the cats looked grumpy or half asleep. The binding started falling apart after just two flips through too. I could have spent that $80 on three used cat books from the thrift store that would be way more fun. Has anyone else gotten burned by an expensive cat book that looked better online than in person?

That fancy $80 cat coffee table book was a total bust

I picked up a big glossy cat photography book at a used bookstore for $80, thought it'd be a cool conversation piece. Got it home, flipped through, and every single cat was either sleeping or staring at a wall, zero action shots. My friend Dave came over, looked at two pages, and said 'this is just cats being boring.' Should have saved my money for a real photo book or just scrolled Instagram. Anyone else get burned by a pricey cat book that was all hype?

That $60 scratch post almost killed my cat - no joke

I was at home last Tuesday in my living room, watching TV, and my cat Luna was using this cheap rope scratch post I bought on Amazon. Suddenly I heard this tearing sound and she yanked the whole thing over. The base came apart and a staple was sticking straight up. She stepped on it and got a small cut on her paw. I spent the next 2 hours at the emergency vet getting it cleaned up and bandaged. Has anyone else had a scratch post fall apart like that and injure their cat?

Stumbled on a cat book from 1987 full of pictures of cats in boxes

Found "Cats and Boxes" at a thrift store for $3 and it's basically 120 pages of cats sitting in cardboard, like a time capsule of our current internet obsession. Has anyone else found weird vintage cat books that predicted modern cat culture?

My aunt's cat book obsession was right after all

She told me back in 2003 to keep every cat photo book I found. I thought they were just clutter. Now I've got 12 of them and a friend paid me $40 for one from 1987 with the wildest cat poses I've ever seen. Anyone else holding onto old cat books that got valuable?

My cat photography timeline tip actually fixed my lighting problem

So I was flipping through this old coffee table book called "Whiskers at Dawn" that I picked up from a garage sale in Portland. The cat portraits were all taken at different times of day and you can see how the lighting changes everything. I started paying attention to the golden hour shots around 6:30 PM versus the harsh noon ones. After about 3 weeks of trying to match that soft light for my own cat pics, I realized the book had a whole section on how they staged indoor shots with cheap reflectors. Has anyone else tried using car windshield shades as reflectors? They work surprisingly well for getting that warm glow without spending money on fancy gear.

That 'Cats of Instagram' coffee table book I grabbed at a thrift store - the lighting in the before vs after shots is wild

Picked up a 2018 copy for $4 and the first half is all blurry, washed-out photos from old phones, then around 2020 it's like someone flipped a switch with crisp, bright shots. What even happened back then that made everyone's cat pics look so much better?

Vent: That overpriced cat book at the fancy bookstore in Portland

I went to Powell's Books last weekend and found this huge coffee table book called something like 'Cats of Paris' for $75. It was just 80 pages of blurry street cats near dumpsters with some artsy filter on them. My cat looks better than those photos and I took them on my phone. I can't be the only one who thinks these books are a total rip off sometimes, right?

That $12 cat book from the dollar bin was a hidden gem

I picked up that weird vintage cat photo book from the clearance rack at a bookstore in Portland for 12 bucks last spring. I figured it'd be just old blurry pictures of cats sitting on mailboxes, but the pages have these hilarious handwritten captions from the 1960s about each cat's personality. Really changed my mind about bargain bin finds for books like this. Anyone else score a cheap cat book that turned out way cooler than expected?

That $60 cat photography book I bought last month had most of the same pictures I could've found on a free Instagram page.

The photos were all blurry action shots of street cats and I flipped through the whole thing in maybe 4 minutes, has anyone else fallen for a fancy looking cat book that was just a ripoff?

Found a trick to keep cat books from sliding off the coffee table

Honestly, my L-shaped coffee table in Austin was a disaster for my cat book collection. Every time a cat jumped up, books slid off onto the floor. I tried those sticky pads but they left residue. Then I bought a roll of 3M clear anti-slip shelf liner for 8 bucks at the hardware store and cut it to size. Now my 'Chonky Cats of Instagram' and the 'Maine Coon Compendium' stay put even when my orange tabby does a running leap onto the table. Anybody else deal with this sliding problem?

I counted how many cat pics are in my coffee table book and it was 47

I got this huge "Cats of Instagram" book for Christmas and last night I actually sat down and counted every single cat photo in it. 47 photos but only 3 pages of text or captions, felt like a rip off honestly. Anyone else ever count stuff in their cat books or am I just weird like that?

My cat book collection was a mess until I tried one weird thing

I had like 30 cat coffee table books stacked on my shelf and could never find the one I wanted. Every time someone came over I'd spend 5 minutes digging through piles. Tried sorting by color, size, even cat breed. Nothing worked. Last week I just started arranging them by publishing year instead. Oldest to newest. Now I can grab any book in 10 seconds flat. Has anyone else found a system that actually works for organizing these things?

I tried using a cat photography book to train my own cat and got nothing but confusion

I picked up "The Art of Cat Portraiture" at a used shop for $8, thinking my cat could learn from seeing other cats pose. I set it open on the coffee table for two weeks straight, hoping she'd pick up some tips for sitting still. Instead, she just batted the pages around and knocked the book onto the floor three times. She never once looked at the photos, but she did sit on the spine until the binding cracked. I learned that cats don't care about self-improvement through literature, they only care about causing problems. Has anyone else had their cat actively ignore a book that cost you actual money?

I was dead wrong about that 'Cats of Instagram' photo book

My sister got me that big glossy 'Cats of Brooklyn' coffee table book for my birthday last March, and I rolled my eyes so hard. I thought it was just another cash grab full of basic cat pics you can see for free online. But I sat down with it one rainy Sunday and the stories behind each photo really got me. There's one shot of a stray named Marmalade who hangs out at a bodega on 5th Avenue, and the owner's quote about him changed how I see those cats. Has anyone else been surprised by a cat book they thought would be lame?

Dropped $90 on that "Cats of Instagram" coffee table book and the photos are terrible resolution

I saw it at Barnes and Noble and thought it would be a fun conversation piece for my living room. Flipped through it in the store and the pictures looked fine, but when I got it home and sat down with it, like half the images are so pixelated you can barely make out the cats' faces. It's like they just grabbed whatever low-res files people posted online and blew them up. The captions are also super cringey. Did anyone else get burned by a fancy looking cat book that was all hype? I need recommendations for one that actually has good photography.

TIL I was displaying cat books wrong for years

I used to stack all my cat coffee table books flat on top of each other because I thought it looked cleaner. Last month at a friend's place in Austin, she had her copy of "Cats in Sunbeams" angled on a stand and I realized I've been hiding the covers this whole time. Now I display them upright and people actually stop to flip through them. Anyone else change how they show off their collection?