veganism: Pretty much all of my friends are telling me to read something by him but I don't know where to start. What was your favorite book by him? I read about five pages of slaughter-house five and didn't like it. Maybe I should give it another chance? I had veganism in my mind when I was reading it, you know, "slaughter house". I've read an essay by him that I found really amusing but other than that, I'm clueless. Any recommendations? |||Breakfast of champions.||| Try Cat's Cradle. Excellent book. And yes, please give Slaughterhouse Five another chance. I think you will fall in love with it. Pax-C |||Go with the short story Harrison Bergeron. I thought it was really interesting and telling of what could come.|||Hocus Pocus was a great novel...and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is my favorite short story of his!|||In my opinion, without question- Slaughterhouse Five. |||The Slaughter House Five movie is much easier to read.|||I always recommend that folks start with Sirens of Titan. It's got the widest scope of his world view in it, and it's a great sampling of what Vonnegut is like as a writer. It's by no means his funniest book, but I think it's one of the more important ones - right up there with Slaughterhouse Five and Mother Night. It's written in very short segments, and reads extremely fast. There are tons of great one line observations that you'll instantly feel the need to quote all the time! The story bounces between Malachi Constant - the protagonist - and Rumfoord, the founder of the "Church of God the Utterly Indifferent," a wealthy man who through a "series of accidents" becomes viewed sort of as a God on Earth and Mars. The story is magnificent, witty, quick, and, again, full of amazing observations and statements about society. My favorite line of all time by Vonnegut, and the one that I think justifies people reading this book regardless of their tastes in literature, is, "A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved." Start with Sirens of Titan and move on from there. The universe Vonnegut created builds on itself and features a wide range of recurring characters including Kilgore Trout, and is an easy universe to fall hopelessly in love with if you give yourself the chance. Enjoy Sirens!|||I really like the reasoning behind the "Sirens" suggestion. If you want to ease into Vonnegut a little, you might try "Welcome to the Monkey House", a collection of short stories that can be taken a little bit at a time. Will give you a great overall feel for how Vonnegut is going to talk to you in his novels