Reading my first Vonnegut book. (1 Viewer)

Timequake.

It's very good so far. I decided to start with something like this instead of Slaugterhouse Five. Everybody everywhere, it seems, loves loves loves Slaugterhouse Five to death. Everyone I've seen, everything I've read says SF is great.

Well, it probably is, but if I'm going to get into Vonnegut, I'd rather begin with something relatively obscure. Something without opinions painted in mile high neon letters.

After Timequake, I have Sirens of Titan lined up. Then a book of short stories. Then maybe I'll make time for Slaughterhouse Five.
 
In my War & Lit, we were made to analyze S5 so much that I grew to dislike it. She turned it into a pure war story - but evidently I'm biased on the subject. Sirens of Titans was amazing - trippy, at least. When you read it on downers the references to time and black holes and such really get you in a daze. A great think-piece.
 
I would recommend reading Slaughterhouse 5 back to back to back with Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Joseph Heller's Catch-22. In many ways, they are unalike, but there's a certain common absurdity in the Vonnegut (unreal surreality) and Heller (more real surreality) books that is complimented nicely by the Remarque (more grounded) book.

Order doesn't matter. But for desert, try Johnny got his Gun from Dalton Trumbo.
 
Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" is a great novel. So is his novel, "Jailbird", about a guy who gets caught up in Watergate (Killgore Trout is in that one too).
 
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Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" is a great novel. So is his novel, "Jailbird", about a guy who gets caught up in Watergate (Killgore Trout is in that one too).

I'd be more likely to read Jailbird before S5. Especially after watching Frost/Nixon on DVD.
 
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When the president does it, it's not illegal.

I tend to sweat. The handkerchief won me the election.

Is this what you call a dachshund?

Those shoes are very nice, Mr. Frost.

What a hysterical movie.
 
I'm about a third or more through Timequake. Vonnegut seems to love jumping around in this book. Not sure I'm comfortable with that style, but I'm still being entertained. So maybe it's just this book that's weird.
 
Bruno - finally, someone who agrees with me. As I said above, I was completely blow away by Sirens. It blew my mind with every page turned. And when we would study Kurt in War & Lit, the instructor painted a completely cliche picture of him as a guy with just plain old PTSD, haunted by "time". It quite sickened me, which is why I have something against SH5 (the piece we mainly studied), despite how well and interestingly it was written, and how the dark comedy of it made me giggle (no one else would laugh, the instructor found his "late night phone disease" sad). I also have a late night phone disease, and it has given me some of the greatest laughter of my life.
 
No love for Cat's Cradle? I like Slaughterhouse-Five, but I've got a special place in my heart for Cat's Cradle and Hocus Pocus. Of course, I don't really feel like you could go wrong with ANY Vonnegut, honestly.
 
Has anybody read Vonnegut's "Dead Eye Dick"? Is it a good novel? I bought a discarded copy at the local library but I have'nt read it yet.
 
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The further I get into Timequake, the weirder it gets. Maybe I'm just not quite used to Vonnegut's style. But that's the reason for reading this book. It's an introduction for me. Before I bought Sirens, I read a couple of passages in it and I'm really enthusiastic about reading that. But I will slog through Timequake in the meantime. It's an easy read with the short chapters. Weird, but easy.
 
Cat's Cradle is great too LTS, but you're right when you say you can't really go wrong with any of his stuff. I've read most of his novels and I'm yet to be disappointed.
 
cat's cradle is my favorite vonnegut book. i still think the terminology for his invented religion is one of the funniest things i've ever read. and the book has one of the best endings in the history of literature.
 
I hear a lot of praise for Cat's Cradle, but not as much as for S5. So seeing as I'm not oversaturated with praise for CC, I'm amenable to picking it up sometime.
 
Vonnegut was the Man, and in my opinion one of the greatest recent writers; it was a sad day all around when he died three years back. S5 sent me into a 2 month obsession with the firestorm bombing of Dresden, talk about some grim stuff.

And sometimes it's better to start with an author's well known works, generally it leads to an easier transition into their other novels, as this may be the case with Vonnegut.
 
Still haven't finished Timequake. About a third to go. This book is so weird it almost hurts my head to read more than a couple chapters. But I'll get it done.

I seem to remember Kurt himself saying this was one of his least favorite books. I think I may be starting to understand why.
 
I was at Rhino Records in Claremont, Ca a couple weeks ago and they have about 3 shelves dedicated to books. They had several books by Vonnegut,
Kerouac, Ginsberg, Miller, and even Fante(which was nice to see) but no Buk! I asked a salesperson about Buk and he said they could order it? I don't know, I just found that funny. Maybe they usually carry Buk and this dude didn't know that, maybe Buk regularly sells at Rhino Records and the others don't, but I was trying to impress my date and failed!
 
I think it's funny that Books-A-Million will carry Buk poetry, but not Buk novels. What's their logic, I wonder?

I've not heard of Books-A-Million, but that is weird. Every single book store I've ever been in, if they carried the poetry, they carried the novels. Maybe they just think the poetry moves off the shelves quicker or something.
 
Books-a-Million is still around? Huh...

It's because of Books-A-Million that I found Buk's poetry. I owe them that much. But it wasn't till WV's very first Barnes & Noble went up that I actually saw Buk's novels on the shelf.

I've not heard of Books-A-Million.

Maybe BAM just isn't as big on the West Coast. But then, I never heard of them till they set up here in WV back in 2003.
 

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