Does whether you are a cat person or a dog person reveal the kinds of books you like to read? A very unscientific Facebook study reported at Ebook Friendly says it does.
Apparently cat people are more likely to be readers than dog people to begin with. When it comes to what types of books each prefers, cat people read a disproportionate amount of science fiction, fantasy and anime while dog people are big readers of love stories and stories about dogs.
As a cat person myself I can say that, yes, I do read quite a bit of fantasy and science fiction. I have not read any anime. I do not especially enjoy reading books about dogs not because I don’t like dogs, but because more often than not, the dog dies which causes me to break down into a weeping, snotty mess. I know this because I have read enough dog stories to recognize the pattern and I refuse to participate any further in the sobfest. I do not find it cathartic. I take no pleasure in red eyes and a runny nose. I get nothing but a super-sized dose of sadness and there are already so many other things to be sad about I don’t need to add dead dogs to the mix. But a good love story? I am down with a good love story as long as there are no dead dogs in it. Not sure what that says about me and my cat or dog allegiance.
What about you? Cat person, dog person, neither or both? And does your furry preference reveal anything about your reading?
Personally, I think it is time to break out and go non-binary on the dog and cat thing. I mean what about people who keep fish? Or rodents of various kinds? Rabbits? Birds — Chickens! The world is much bigger than cats and dogs after all.
I call myself an ailurophile, but am a lover of all animals. I have to agree with you about the dog stories always ending with a death. Why is it that cats, whose lifespan is about as short, don’t inspire the sob stories? I think cats would scoff at the sentimentality.
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Jeanne, I guess cats don’t inspire sob stories. I suspect you are right they would scoff at them!
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I am totally a dog person (mildly allergic to cats in fact) but I think my reading taste skews more on the cat-person side in the heuristic you’ve laid out above. Like you, I don’t tend to read a lot of books with dogs since the dog always dies. Even in books (maybe especially in these ones!) where the dog is not the most primary to the plot, the dog still very often dies. God damn it.
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Jenny, I know, why can’t there be a happy dog story? When I was a kid I liked Incredible Journey – two dogs and a cat – and they all live at the end and find their people. A happy story!
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I’m a cat person who also keeps fish, and yet I read lots and lots of dog stories. Whether they die or not. But I’m not as keen on love stories. So what does that say about me… ?
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Jeane, maybe keeping fish skews your preferences somehow? 😉
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Now I agree with you. I think we need to go beyond cats and dogs and think about folks with pet chickens! Now personally I am dog person..grew up with 3 extremely independent minded doggies, but I do not like dog stories because of exactly the same reason and I do like a good love story! The thing is I also like fantasy tales. So now what does that make me?
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Probably a cat person but as a reader I am only a dipper- into SF and fantasy so I don’t seem to fit the profile.
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Ian, you are such a rebel! 😀
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cirtnecce, maybe you are just confused and are actually a cat person? 😉
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Very much cat person and read practically no science fiction at all. Maybe a bit of John Wyndham way back when. I read dog stories as a child Finn the Irish Wolfhound and another very old one called Beautiful Joe – you’re right he did die but then there was a book called Beautiful Joe’s Paradise when he was basically in dog heaven so that was a bit of a relief and cut the sob fest off in its prime!
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Vicky, a kid’s book with Joe in doggie heaven? That’s kind of funny but yeah, definitely must help cut the sobfest short!
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This is not only amusing but it is strangely interesting.
I am a cat person. I like science fiction a lot . I also have never read anime.
It is funny how before I got to the sentence where you explained why did not like to read stories with dogs in them, I was thinking the same thing. I hate when there are animals in books because so often something bad happens to them.
I wonder if anyone has done a more scientific study on this.
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Brian Joseph, that’s pretty funny. A more valid study would still be anecdotal but it would be interesting to dig into the data anyway, just for fun 🙂
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My dog and cat are laying here with me so I have to whisper. If I had to chose, I’m a cat person. I’m also a horse person. I never read horse or dog stories with death involved. Horse movies make me cry even without death.
I read a lot of sci fi but also some romance.
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Heather, I hear you on the horse stories! I read Red Pony when I was a kid and OMG! Devastating.
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I’ve rarely met an animal of any sort that I didn’t like or at least respect. So, I read pretty much everything. I only like Science Fiction if it takes place on Earth, you know, like giant ants, bless their souls, eating all the humans! I’m not big on Romance either. Most novels about animals make me sad because, as you said, the animal usually dies in the end.
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Joan, go ants! 🙂
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Also a dog person, somewhat allergic to cats. And I certainly don’t like to read sci fi, fantasy or anime (as a general rule).
I suppose I like love stories – as long as they are interesting and not cliched – and I love dog stories. I used to find them very cathartic when I was young. If I wanted a good cry I’d go get the story, “The first lady of the seeing-eye” (i.e. first, what we’d call here, guide dog), I think that’s was the title. It was so sad when she died.
One of the most common search engine questions which reaches my blog is “does Red Dog die”. I was asked it in a comment once. I didn’t want to spoil it but I seem to recollect saying something like “It’s a dog story …” I mean, really, nuff said!
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whisperinggums, I might have been the one to ask you if Red Dog dies! It seems vaguely familiar 🙂 I loved to read animal stories when I was a kid though I hated that they so often had sad endings but I read them anyway. Occupational hazard.
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You may have Stefanie, I haven’t checked, but you are certainly not the only one who has wanted to know! Haha, yes, occupational hazard is right.
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I am a cat person, but I don’t enjoy sci-fi, fantasy, or anime at all. I would say that loving cats led me to repeated reading’s of TS Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” when I was young which has led to a love of poetry in general. I love nothing more than reading with a companionable cat. I like dogs, but my living circumstances have rarely led to the possibility of living with a dog.
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Gubbinal, I am with you on the reading with cats! I love having mine curled up with me when I read. My husband is a dog person and we had a dog once and I would rather not have one again. At times it was like we had a small child for 14 years.
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While not having read much sf (Doris Lessing, Ursula leGuin), needed to look up anime which says enough, I am more a cat than a dog person. Yet if it would be a category I definitely would call myself a blackbird or butterfly person. Does that make me airy?
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Cath, it means you prefer delicate beauty 🙂
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I am a cat person if I had to pick, but I like dogs. I have never owned one, though. I think I’d like to – but my husband is not a fan, alas. He’s also not a fan of our current cat, though – she’s seriously neurotic and only likes me. Maybe one day I’ll persuade him to get a dog!
I also don’t read any books about animals, period. They’re almost always sad. I just can’t take it.
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I completely agree with this! Where the Red Ferns Grows might be the last animal specific book I read. I can’t do it. Too heartbreaking VERY TIME!
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Where the Red Fern Grows! I still have not gotten over that book!
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Laila, I much prefer neurotic cats to neurotic dogs. My husband persuaded me into a dog long ago and while he was sweet, he definitely had issues not mention a certain lack of intelligence. This also meant that he was easily controlled by the cat we had at the time 🙂
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I have no pets. I like animals – but at a distance! I don’t want the responsibility of them, or the cleaning entailed. I prefer wild animals and the birds that visit my garden. I read all sorts of books, depending on my mood.
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piningforthewest, you may be the smartest of all of us by not having animals to take care of!
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No pets for me… Partly due to cat allergies and partly because I don’t think I have the time to care for a pet. Now when it comes to books, I really don’t like to pick up any books with any pet on the cover. What does that say about me?! 🙂
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Iliana, it says you are a sane person who does not like to have her emotions manipulated so that you turn into a sobbing mess 🙂
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Definitely a cat-lady here, we have two boys, Sunny and Sherry. I am a fan of sci-fi, some fantasy, and have never read anime (Anna May who? I might ask if I was in a funny mood tonight, ha ha).
And I completely agree about how dog books end, though there are plenty of cat books that end with me sobbing my head off, and trust me, it’s not a pretty sight.
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Lynda, oh you made me laugh! Love your cats’ names! I’ve not come across too many cat books that reduce me to tears but there have been a few.
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Thank you! Making people laugh is one of my favorite things. 🙂
When we named the cats, we thought Sherry was a girl. Then they went to the vet for the first time, and after some … searching (sorry, Sherry), the vet declared that Sherry is a male, too, and suggested that we change his name “so he won’t get… confused.” We still laugh about that, and we still call him Sherry (except for a friend who calls him Sheldon, which I’ve told her is not really an improvement.)
The cat book that has made me cry the most is “Dewey, the small town library cat that touched the world,” but you could say they were happy tears because he had a much better life than he would have otherwise, and did a lot of great library outreach.
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Lynda, that’s a great story! As if a cat is going to suffer from gender confusion because of its name!
Oh Dewey! I remember when that book was all the buzz. I never read it because I was pretty sure it would make me cry at the end and hearing that it made you cry I am glad to have skipped it!
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Agreed. I personally prefer dogs, but I love all animals. My family has pigs, sheep, cats, dogs, ducks, and geese. AND, I hope to one day have a ferret. My reading tastes run towards, fantasy (UBER high fantasy addict here), urban fantasy, young adult, anime and romance. A lot of genres to be honest.
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BookHarpy, as you are an equal opportunity animal lover, you are an equal opportunity reader!
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Good to know!
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I’m not much of a reader of animal stories either and for the same reason–it rarely ends well for the animal. However, I am curious about books like the one about the cat (is his name Homer?) who is blind-has no eyes at all. A sort of cat biography perhaps–that I would like to read sometime. I am a cat person but I like mysteries and short stories and translated works–maybe that means I especially like black cats or something? 😉
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Danielle, I have not heard about Homer. Sounds interesting. I will let you read the book first and if you cry then I will scratch it off my tbr list 🙂 I’d say you must especially like calico cats with all that variety!
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I am a cat person, although I like dogs too — it’s just that I have never owned a dog as a pet, and I have never been without a cat. And I am a voracious reader — not a lot of sci-fi, though — mostly just kind of…. I don’t know, random novels?
Funny though, the last book I finished on the weekend, it was a memoir, a journal — by poet May Sarton. And all through it she was trying to befriend this one cat that kept coming around her place. Slowly, over the months, it got tamer and tamer — she would set food out for the cat, but it would never allow her to get close to it. Then, one spring, there were all of a sudden just too many cats in her yard, so she called the Humane Society and they gave her a trap. One day the elusive cat went in there for food, along with another cat, a kitten. And the door slammed shut on them and the cats went crazy — the authorities took the cats away and the older one was promptly euthanized. The whole episode made me so sad, and plus it made me hate May Sarton, the author. After all that time, the cat had finally trusted her, and she betrayed it — shipping it off to its doom. I could never do such a thing — so I guess you could say I am an extreme cat-person.
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Hi Cip! What a terribly sad story that is about Sarton. Good intentions gone wrong. I could never do something like that either. I don’t think you are extreme at all, just compassionate.
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