Tale of cat who touched world will touch reader

Since its release in late September, "Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World" by Vicki Myron and Bret Witters (Grand Central, 277 pages, $19.99) has been steadily in the top five on many bestseller lists. Books about animals usually sell well, and this one's strong showing out of the gate should be of little surprise. Few cats' deaths make news the way the death of Dewey Readmore Books, the library cat in Spencer, Iowa, did two years ago.

By author Vicki Myron's account, the cat's obituary appeared in 260 newspapers, and visits to the library website went from around 25,000 to almost 190,000 a day within the month and stayed near that level for a year.

Myron, Dewey's owner and the retired head librarian, tells his story with the help of co-writer Bret Witters from the time the library staff found him in the drop box on a cold January morning in 1988 to his death in late November 2006.

In between, Myron delivers, with her Midwestern librarian's sensible but affectionate touch, the amusing tales that Dewey lovers crave.

She marvels at Dewey's winsome personality -- his charm, his style and his uncanny ability to read people's thoughts and moods while revealing little in return. When she says that Dewey was famous not because of what he did but because of who he was, you believe her. She does not give Dewey any greater powers or credit than any other sensible person would.

She describes what it was like to run a library with a resident cat: Dewey hiding, Dewey riding on book carts, Dewey attending story hours, Dewey being a finicky eater. By just being his charming marmalade self, she explains, Dewey brought the world to Spencer, including a Japanese film crew and a couple from Rhode Island who drove from Minneapolis just to see the cat.

Many animal tales end sadly because most owners outlive their pets. Myron doesn't spare us this, so have a few tissues on hand when you get to chapters 26 and 27.

But don't skip it. It's the final tribute to how much a small-town library cat touched the world.

Jean Shea is a news copy editor.