Why choose but one book…give the kid a fighting chance and give them the full oeuvre.

boo!!! why do the cool people have to die and the a-holes live on? too hard to choose his best book. rip kv.

If had to choose one….Breakfast of Champions

I agree. The little bastards of today should read them all

SLaughterhouse-Five is one of the 20th Centuries greatest works!

Breakfast of Champions and Welcome to the Monkeyhouse. Couldn’t just choose one.

Hard choice, to be sure, but if only one can be offered up, I guess I would have to go with “A Man Without a Country”. His last, one of the shortest, but clearly loaded with the insight and intelligence that made him the candle in the dark he was. The hope being, of course, that it would whet the appetite for more.

I would designate a Vonnegut novel or collection for each month, and depending on during which month a child was born, that particular tome would be bequeathed to the child to cherish forever after. Just think…in addition to astrological signs, places of birth, alma maters, etc., people could identify “granfalloons” according to which Vonnegut book they were associated with. There would be entire books written on the moods and temperments of Breakfast of Champion kids versus Mother Night’s. In addition, on each subsequent birthday, the child would receive yet another Vonnegut work until he or she was the proud owner of all things Vonnegut. Only then will children be ready to face the flaming dragon turd of tomorrow. And so on…

The fire bombing in reverse is one of the most beautiful passages i’ve ever read…i’ll stick with slaughterhouse 5.

Slaughterhouse Five and Welcome to the Monkey House are my faves.

The ungrateful little swine running around today on their ritalin and adderall should be strapped into chairs and forced to read all of Vonnegut’s work. They’ll be the better for it.

If I have to choose one, I would choose Mother Night.

Easily God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. That baby will be well equipped to deal with the Mushari’s of the world from the getgo. And if not, at least he’ll be equally as prepared for servitude as a volunteer fireman.

Slaughterhouse V or Breakfast of Champions

“…and so it goes”

The future generations need to realize that sometimes the illogical just makes sense.

ok, i admit it; i’m really just a pseudo-intellectual – i haven’t read any kurt vonnegut books…but i promise to make a sincere effort to do so in the future…

lik roper cant read!!! hahahahahahahahaha

Cat’s Cradle, which I gave my son to introduce him to Vonnegut. Then I encouraged him to read them all.
P.S. For a while in the 1970s, I was listed in the Washington DC phone book as Kilgore Trout.

It’s gotta be Slaughterhouse 5. No other book conveys the madness of war better. Vonnegut puts you right in the head of the crazy, doomed Billy Pilgrim, then launches you into a psychedelic war trip that only reveals the tragedy at its core with sideways glances. The horror is there, but like Billy we can’t quite focus on it. Too horrible. A flat out brilliant book.

Galapogos

One fish,Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish

Reading SUX!

INSTEAD!

HUSTLER magazine & US.

I mean like books?I just read on the internet & crap.

Breakfast of Champions is the a good choice…but come on guys, let’s see a playlist for him, it’s a tough one!

One less asswipe in the world.

F.U. KURT !

Cat’s Cradle–the book that gave us the One True Faith: Bokononism! (I don’t actually have the book handy, so apologies to all if I misspelled that).

Hocus Pocus

what’s with the people posting that they hate reading, glad the guy died, etc? why would anyone choose to self-identify as mean-spirited and illiterate?

Mother Night

Slaughterhouse Five is the first Vonnegut book I read. For sentimental reasons, I’ll stick with that one as my favorite. Although I have an affection for Sirens of Titan.

OVER-RATED & I HEARD HE LIKE THE COCK!

See the Cat? See the Cradle? Purrfect for every newborn.

Nothing in this book is true.

“Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.”
The Book of Bokonon. I: 5

He never bought in to the brokaw,etc crap that they saved the world. I still am a Bokononist.

Player Piano is the Rosetta Stone to his novels. “The Sirens of Titans” is also a classic!

slaughterhouse 5…so no kid enrolls in the army thinkin its all glory and then winds up fighting for something they do not even know or beleive in

I couldn’t agree more with bluebeard!!!

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater…

Its gotta be The Sirens of Titan.

For the entire meaning of human life and civilization is to merely reconstruct a broken part in an alien’s spaceship.

The lack and meaning of life smushed into one great book.

Galapagos

Mother Night

I’d have to say the Sirens of Titan. I think it was far and away his best work. I don’t think there is a better book to serve as an introduction to his work, which was, let’s face it, extremely bizarre, than Sirens. The book was great and its also a bit more accessible than some of his others which only true Vonnegut fans can really appreciate.

Welcome to the Monkey House. In addition to how well-crafted these stories are, it is nothing short of astonishing that Vonnegut was able, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, to foresee and lampoon, for example, the affirmative action that would follow from the then-emerging equality movement and the extreme overcrowding that may yet result from advances in medical science.

Breakfast of Champions or Man without a Country

man without a country.

Slaughterhouse Five is my favorite. And to the haters: Go f— yourself. There’s a reason why you only make 6.75 an hour.

“Mother Night,” without question. I was given the book by a moron who said, “You’ll like this,” which worried me because he was a moron, but I ate that book up. I’ve read everything Vonnegut ever wrote, and “Mother Night” is still my favorite. He will be missed. And to you jokesters who say you’re glad he’s dead: and so it goes…

Dead eye Dick. Best novel ever. Perfect ,mixture of styles and content. Fast,furious,poignant. To those who trash talk Vonnegut,your a bunch of sad humans. You should be grateful god gives us such beautuful souls.

Kurt Vonnegut has been a literary touchstone for me for many years. I saw his books around my house as a kid but only started to read him in college when I was lucky enough to have fine teachers lead me through his writing; we read Cat’s Cradle and Mother Night; (and I was amazed when one professor told us that he had spent his birthday re-reading Cat’ Cradle; must be really good, I thought)

After Cat’s Cradle I understood why the Grateful Dead named their music publishing company Ice Nine, and then a whole lot of connections came tumbling after.

I went on to read Breakfast of Champions, and Galapagos, and to teach (if possible) Slaughterhouse 5. How strange and unexpected to have to explain to teenagers what “coming unstuck in time” means.

I will always remember sitting in a friend’s flat in north London in mid-December 1986, re-reading Cat’s Cradle and getting to part with the elevator man’s spiel about Mayan-aise architecture and just coming totally, hysterically unglued, laughing and laughing my ass off until it became so ridiculous I tried to stifle it which only made it worse; absurd, yes, and healing, and I guess that is what Vonnegut was about, healing ourselves by learning to laugh at this absurd world we all inherit collectively and in our own ways.

Last night I went out and bought God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and look forward to getting to know another sector of the Vonnegut universe

I’m so happy that there is more to read.

Thanks and Praises.

P.S.: Jerry Garcia’s favorite Vonnegut was Sirens of Titan (I haven’t yet read it), so much that he even bought the film rights.

Breakfast of Champions.
Such a soul wrenching book.

I have to go with Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut has written an exceptional novel of love, lies, and the self destruction of mankind. I couldn’t put this one down…I’m a converted Bokonist!

Slapstick. Amazingly satirical and brilliantly written.

Any of his novels would be an excellent choice, especially his earlier material. Although his many short stories (see “Harrison Bergeron”) are phenomial satire as well. If nothing else, introduce these kids to Kilgore Trout!

What would be better than making every kid read a vonnegut is just ban his books. Everybody reads what’s banned, kind of how Bokononism was outlawed, so everybody on the island was a closet bokononist. cat’s cradle’s inspiring, the kind of book every 13 year old should read in one sitting and get his mind blown.

Welocome to the Motherfuckin Monkey House, people…

Variety and Brevity, and sure to ignite a curiosity that will lead right down Vonnegut Lane to the LIBRARY.

Welcome to the Monkey House.

Variety and Brevity, and sure to ignite a life-long curiosity which will lead right down Vonnegut Lane to the LIBRARY. (or bookstore)

p.s. Haters are beyond. ignore them. :Flaming Dragon Turd of Tomorrow: (hoo-ha)

eh.

thats all i have to say about vonnegut