I'd like to both receive and pass on books! I think one book apiece sounds perfect to start. English was my favorite subject in school as a young kid, but mostly because I didn't mind reading and always got an A. When I was 14, I read Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five," and overnight I found myself starving for comparable literature, bouncing with excitement at my discovery, and babbling about the book to anyone who would listen. Nothing had ever made me feel so deeply before. I felt as though Vonnegut had reached out, listened to, and understood my insecurities, questions, worries, and the burgeoning 14-year-old interest in the human condition and complex problems like war. Then he reaffirmed what I'd been feeling and commiserated with the rest, all while leaving a bitter-sweet laugh on my lips. Somehow that book made me feel like I did have a place in the universe and in humanity, that I wasn't alone, and that science fiction could be meaningful. He was my first favorite author, and I've since read nearly everything he's ever written. I even have a tattoo of the "Cat's Cradle" cover art on my back. It's my favorite Vonnegut book. Anyway, Vonnegut sparked a true love for prose and, a few years later, a passion for poetry as well. Now I'm 21 years old and almost done with a degree in English Lit. I'm going to be a teacher, and, hopefully, I'll be able to instill some of my passion in students, and show them what books have to offer.
Slaughterhouse is also my favorite Vonnegut, but it's the only work of his I've read so far. A couple more remain on my oft-expanding, intimidatingly vast reading list, and I look forward to them. Did you, by any chance, also find yourself adopting "So it goes" as a sort of mantra for some time after your completion of the book? It remains one of my most-used (nonoriginal) phrases.
Slaugherhouse is great, but I would also recommend Breakfast of Champions. It was my first foray in to his work. I read it the same month I read Jack Kerouac's On the Road. -I was 18, both of those books had a tremendous impact on me. Later I would read, The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castenada and decide to be an anthropologist. I should have stopped at On the Road. -A 300 level Archaeology course stopped me dead in my tracks. Never got the anthro degree. Later it would be found that Casteneda was a fraud, but his book is none the less entertaining.
Ha. This is the problem with living in an interesting world with interesting art and being a curious person. The lists are ever-growing.
Imagine what it would be like the other way round - living in a boring world with terrible art where you struggle to find anything interesting or rewarding.
Time management is one of the keys to successful living. No doubt about it.
I love Breakfast of Champions as well. Really, I don't think I've disliked a Vonnegut book yet. I would like to read On the Road. I haven't read any Jack Kerouac, and he kinda keeps getting pushed down on my reading list I guess. It seems to me like people are often very polarized when discussing his writing. Many readers are fanatics, but a huge portion of readers are also disgusted by him. What's your take on this?
Gosh, it's been so long since I've read him that I can't really say. I can only say that the 18 year old version of me LOVED it. I felt challenged by it, like I was living some sedentary life and needed to be an adventurer. I was not going to college at the time, smoking tons of pot and had no direction. As much as it may sound odd, the book made me want an adventure and I chose college as that adventure. -I moved from Michigan to Montana and attended the university of montana. I think that book had a lot to do with it.
Also yes, "So it goes" pops into my head at some point every day!