Hi friends! Eric here, regular retweeter of silly jokes and political outrage. In the interest of fewer RTs about the imploding world around us, here's some nerdy shit about Kurt Vonnegut novels! Why not, there's a damn quarantine going on.

I'm a big fan of these books! I like some more than others, but I dont really dislike any. I didnt get into the non-fiction or short stories until I read all the novels, so it's been 14+ years since I read any of the novels. Turns out my memory is real bad!

Because quarantine, I decided to reread my favorite of the collection, which is also one of the last of his novels that I got to, right around 14-15 years ago.

I remember liking this book, but it's SO MUCH better than I recall. I remembered parts of it, but way less than I should've. Probably not relevant that I was drinking a whole lot at the time, nope.

It's about literal and metaphorical corporate machinery, and I had JUST started the corporate job that I've had since then. I couldn't relate to the main character at all on first read, and I couldn't understand why he hated everything around him so much.

The protagonist has it made; good job, good partner, nice stuff, and he resents nearly everything about it. I'm not quite that bad, but it's like, yeah, I understand that a lot better @ 37 than I did @ 23.

Any way, read this book! I enjoyed it so much more than I realized, despite remembering it as my favorite. I enjoyed it SO much that I decided to re-read ALL of the novels! Again, why not: quarantine.

And since Player Piano was Vonnegut's first, fuck it, let's read'em in order. Next up!

Hey, I'm back with this thing you don't care about! Everything sucks right now/for the foreseeable future, but this is fun for me. Unfortunately probably not for you though. For you, this is just a little less bad than a deadly virus.

My terrible recollection of this book was that it's one of the most directly sci-fi Vonnegut books and that I didn't really like it. I half-remembered correctly!

It's very sci-fi, and I love it. If you're reading my KV tweets and waiting for my scathing criticisms, don't hold your breath. I didn't collect all these things 'cuz I hate'em.

I did not remember how hilarious and tragic this book manages to be, often simultaneously. It's like when you see a hilarious injury and go "Ohhhhhahaha, but oh no" and you briefly look away but only for a second

I tweeted this a while ago, but one of the things I love about KV are the deep little quotes he gifts you throughout his books. These alone wouldn't make anything worth reading, but the stories are already worth reading, then you get these things as a bonus

I get stupidly frustrated and real up-my-own ass whenever I hear someone mention that they googled for a good quote for a meeting or speech or some shit. You know you can just read stuff that's worth quoting, right? Wouldn't that be fun and rewarding?!

While I'm on my high-and-mighty literary soapbox, I hate mystery boxes. In theory they're a fun plot device, but too many authors and screenwriters aren't good enough at paying them off to make them worth it (eat shit, Lost).

Not saying I can do better - I cannot! But you should know where you're going with your shit if you're going to do a mystery box. KV pays his off beautifully in Sirens, and does it after convincing you he won't. It's great. Read this weird ass book.

Next up is one of my favorites, and that which contains possibly my favorite quote of all time found in something not named Tommy Boy

I love this book so much, and hey, my memory didn't completely fail me on this one! Enjoy the small victories in life, I say. That's right, friends, it's a Friday night book review!

This has always been in my top 5, despite being kind of a bummer. It's not really sci-fi at all, and it's just kind of about a guy, but I love what it makes you think about.

It's about an American spy who worked undercover during WW2 as a nazi radio propagandist, but he was good at it so he wound up being a pretty famous and beloved nazi, and now he's just living in New York and trying not to be noticed.

He didnt get punished for war crimes since he was actually a spy, but no one knew he was a spy and EVERYONE knew him as a famous nazi.

I wont spoil anything, but the book is about him struggling w/whether or not he did a good thing by spying for the US since he also kinda sorta accidentally inspired a bunch of nazis to be better nazis. Hence one of my favorite quotes:

I'm a big dumb up-his-own-ass nerd, so I love thinking about things like whether it's more important to do good things or have good intentions, and this book scratches that itch. It's not exactly a lighthearted romp, but I'm a fan.

One of the things I love about re-reading these books is finding the pages I dog-eared. There's only been one (of about 5 so far) where I could even pick out the quote for which I marked the page. I keep finding pages, then no fucking clue what I was thinking.

Next time, 1 of the 2 KV books you might have read! Probably not, but it might've been assigned to you in high school! Crazy!

Helluva day today; we lost B1G football, Jackets lost in 5 GD OTs, Kamala Harris is the VP nominee and, of equal importance, my next non-comprehensive-but-also-lackluster KV book review!

I read this book in high school! I didn't finish most, I was usually good for a half to 2/3 of any assigned book, then I'd give up and finish w/Spark or Cliff's Notes. I should maybe give Sound and the Fury another try ... but whatever, I finished this one!

This is the only KV book I've read twice before the current go-round, because somehow I had this one assigned to me in school but not Slaughterhouse 5. Did we have Slaughterhouse assigned? Maybe. My memory sucks.

Anyhoo, this always reads very quickly for me - it's not my favorite, but it might be the most straightforwardly funny of his books. To wit:

Cat's Cradle is about a few things, but it's mostly about a fake religion and how badly science can go. Kind of like Terminator, but more atom bomb-y.

A lot of KV's humor is more along the lines of "Oh haha, isn't funny how this one dumb thing can cause so much pain and sadness, lol" but Cradle is just kind of silly. It's the first thing too, but ... with silliness.

I was in my mid-20's groove when I last read this, apparently. I usually just dog-eared pages, but I actually highlighted this bad boy

KV is an atheist, by the way. Not trying to edge lord your mind or anything, just worth mentioning because he likes to write about religion and how helpful it can be.

He writes a lot in his non-fiction about how the best thing you can do for yourself, if you move somewhere new, is to join a church. Belief in the selected deity is fine if it helps you, but mostly you'll meet nice people, become involved in your community, etc. Helpful.

Some of the wisdom of the fake religion of the story:

I was so excited to have read this as a high schooler. It felt so different and challenging, it was hilarious (we did NOT get a lot of hilarious book assignments), I was very much a part of my church at the time, it hooked me.

I didnt read another KV novel until college, and I don't recall having anything specific that pushed me to pick one up other than remembering how much I liked this one, and how I'd been meaning to read more.

Might be the bias of it being my own intro to Vonnegut, but I think this is the most accessible of his novels if you wanted to test the waters. It's still not for everyone, for sure, but if you're likely to like something of his, it's Cat's Cradle.

Oooh! Oh! Or his short stories! Those are REAL good and REAL fast reads! But alas, this thread is about the novels. Maybe next pandemic, or when this one lasts till 2022

So yeah, my normal recommendation: read this damn book! If you don't like, probably don't waste too much time trying the others. I mean do, of course, but ... you know. Might not be your thing. Which is cool! It's fine, everything is fine.

Even as the funniest novel (IMHO) this is still kind of a bummer, just to acknowledge that. In case anyone out there knows this book and is reading this like "this dude is a psychopath."