oyceter: Stack of books with text "mmm... books!" (mmm books)
Oyceter ([personal profile] oyceter) wrote2013-07-10 10:58 am

Reading Wednesday

Yay, I actually read something this week, even if I didn't finish anything!

What I've read: As noted, haven't finished anything =(.

What I'm reading: Wendy Christensen's Outsmarting Cats, for the obvious reasons. I probably won't finish, as there doesn't seem to be much in there that I can't already find on the Internets. I was, however, very amused at the introduction and the whole "cats have been domesticated for much less time than dogs, so inside your cat lurks a wild and ferocious predator!"

And I started Grace Lin's Starry River of the Sky, which is a companion to Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, which I loved. So far, there aren't any direct connections between the books, but the structure of stories within the main story is the same. It is so nice having a book that plays to my love of retold tales where said tales are not only not Eurocentric, but also ones I grew up with. Like the previous book, I'm enjoying the little changes Lin makes as she weaves them all together. I'm reading this as an ebook, though I feel I should get it (and the previous book) in paper so I can look more closely at the illustrations and the typesetting and etc.

What I'm reading next: Er, if I actually keep reading, hopefully finishing the Lin? Also, I have had Cold Steel for a while now and still haven't started, despite my anticipation. Cecilia Grant's new romance has also been out for a few weeks, and I vaguely intend to read, but haven't been in much of a romance mood. Instead, I want to get my hands on Spillover to read about pandemics or My Beloved Brontosaurus to read about the latest in paleontology. The latter is sparked by a rewatch of Jurassic Park a few months back, and as for the former... no idea, except that I like reading about diseases and parasites? I have several books about plague and disease and hospitals on my ereader, but am of course hankering after the one I don't have.
lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)

[personal profile] lnhammer 2013-07-10 08:24 pm (UTC)(link)
A further difference from dogs is that cats were probably self-domesticated. That is, they moved in because they found human habitations a useful ecological niche and we accepted them as useful around grainaries, rather than, as with dogs, deliberately capturing a few and breeding them for certain traits. Not that cat traits haven't been bred for, but the basic behavior already fit in, so we've monkeyed with them less.

ETA what I forgot to mention, which was that last night Young Cat aka the Couch Potato (who's almost as round as one) went all Might Bug-Hunter on the large roach that sneaked in the front door. The instincts are in there, somewhere.

---L.
Edited 2013-07-10 22:01 (UTC)