The cat can/will scale to tops of bookshelves and to other heights and locations you believed were out of reach. They have to smell and inventory everything. When things change, they re-inventory. Never assume anything is safe unless it’s behind a closed door or protected container like a display case or storage bin, etc. My wife and I adopted a 4 month old male tabby back in August and he’s now really conquering all the upper reaches and places we thought he’d have no interest in. There’s only one room in our place where we keep the door closed and don’t let him in, and this is where my collection plus model and hobby crafts are with anything else we don’t want his paws on. He knows it’s a room of wonderment and comes running if he hears the door creak when it opens (he can differentiate the different door creaks in our house). He is persistently curious. He also likes to chew on the corners of books…

Now if you are adopting a 10 year old adult, my concerns would come down a bit, but still not close to dog level where I know a tall shelf is defensible. The deterring effect which we are employing to help shape behavior (ie get him off kitchen counters) we're finding most effective is the water squirt bottle. We’re at the point where just showing him the bottle is working, but you’ll need to squirt it and you obviously don’t want the collection to take indirect fire….

I've had multiple cats over the years and up until a few years ago, never had an issue with them tearing anything up.  My wife and I currently have 4 cats.  One of them is a 4-year-old female that loves to shred paper and cardboard.  I've come home, set my mail down on the table, went to put my work stuff up or change out of my work clothes and within a couple of minutes she had shredded one of the pieces of mail.  She also went to town on a magazine box full of Judges Guild magazines once.  The box is shredded up on one side but the magazines weren't damaged.  My fault for leaving it out on the floor.  And one time she chewed on a mylar bag with a Greyhawk Folio in it.  Didn't damage the folio but put a few teeth marks in the bag.  Needless to say, I moved it to a higher shelf.  Other than those instances I've never had any other problems.

My suggestion is if you are going to get a cat, go ahead and get two and get them young.  Maybe not kittens but around 5 - 8 months.  At this point they are litter box trained and probably already spayed/neutered.  Having two generally reduces the possibility of one cat being bored and less of a need to mess with your stuff.
Females, in my opinion, tend to be less problematic but I may just be lucky.  I've had a couple of male cats in the past and they would spray every once in a while, when they were agitated.  If you decide on getting just the one, make sure it has plenty of toys to play with and at least two things to scratch on.  We have three "cat trees", one big one and a couple of small ones in various rooms.  They never scratch on furniture or the walls.

And if you do have problems, I would normally recommend keeping a squirt bottle full of water around so when they do something you don't like you can give them a squirt in the face.  They will run like hell and after a few times will stay away from whatever they were messing with.  But since you don't want to be drenching your prized books with liquid, you can use a can of compressed air at close range and it works pretty good too.

My advice would be to get a breed that doesn't shed. Mine does and anytime I bag and board something the fur floats over and sticks to the bag. I've switched to bookcases with glass doors to the menace out. My open display shelves with miniatures and dice had to be placed so no acrobatics would allow her to reach them and slap defenseless hirelings onto the floor. Also, cats love boxes and mine come running every time I bring a package in. If I don't open it immediately, she'll lay on top of it until I do so she won't miss an unboxing. My cat is bad but I'm sure many are not. Good luck.

I’ve had 7 cats over the years, never had any of them scratch/eat a box or book

I'd worry more about the furniture than books.  Sofas/settees make excellent scratching posts.

Instead of a cat, get a woodgrain.  They'll end up costing about the same....  

mbassoc2003 wrote in Cats and your collection:Except 10 years from now you'd be able to sell the woody for $20K on eBay, whereas you'd be lucky to get $2 for a cat at your local takeaway.
And don't forget to up your home insurance. Cats are fire hazards.

says the guy with a feline avatar...  interesting

jeffsea wrote in Cats and your collection:
says the guy with a feline avatar...  interesting

Lol. Breaking the internet.

-SKA

jeffsea wrote in Cats and your collection:
says the guy with a feline avatar...  interesting

... and two cats. They came with the lockdown to keep the rest of the family sane.

In the UK the press brand them 'lockdown pets'. People with kids got cats. People who wanted an excuse to go outside in the bad old days got dogs. A lot of single women where I live got dogs for whatever reason. With lifting of lockdown there are thousands of abandoned lockdown cats and dogs being left in the countryside or shoveled into shelters, 'cos these animals have never been left alone in a house and their owners prefer the quality of finish on their sofa over the life of their animal companion of choice.