To change pace from all of the political talk...anyone like Vonnegut? I've taken on a composite of what is viewed the top books of all time. The lists you see are very subjective, but certain books keep appearing among most of the lists. I'm literally like a kid in a candy store the last few years. Every time I read a book it is my new favorite. I read 1984 and Brave New World...the best books ever. Then I read Of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath...are you kidding me? That's amazing literature. The Count of Monte Cristo, and all of Dickens...ditto.
But I'm about halfway through Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 and it is just so well written. I thought it was going to be choppy at first, but his cleverness and simple way with words are so enjoyable. I wish I took the time to enjoy this stuff when I was younger.
I'm going to put a few quotes I've come across in the book that I find really good. What are some of your favorite quotes in literature? Here are a few of Vonnegut's...
I looked through the Gideon Bible in my motel room for tales of great destruction. The sun was risen upon the Earth when Lot entered into Zo-ar, I read. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven; and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
So it goes.
Those were vile people in both those cities, as is well known. The world was better off without them.
And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.
She was turned to a pillar of salt. So it goes.
People aren't supposed to look back. I'm certainly not going to do it anymore. I've finished my war book now. The next one I write is going to be fun.
This one is a failure, and had to be, since it was written by a pillar of salt.
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“Billy had a framed prayer on his office wall which expressed his method for keeping going, even though he was unenthusiastic about living. A lot of patients who saw the prayer on Billy’s wall told him that it helped them to keep going, too. It went like this: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.” Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future.”
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How nice -- to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.”
But I'm about halfway through Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 and it is just so well written. I thought it was going to be choppy at first, but his cleverness and simple way with words are so enjoyable. I wish I took the time to enjoy this stuff when I was younger.
I'm going to put a few quotes I've come across in the book that I find really good. What are some of your favorite quotes in literature? Here are a few of Vonnegut's...
I looked through the Gideon Bible in my motel room for tales of great destruction. The sun was risen upon the Earth when Lot entered into Zo-ar, I read. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven; and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
So it goes.
Those were vile people in both those cities, as is well known. The world was better off without them.
And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.
She was turned to a pillar of salt. So it goes.
People aren't supposed to look back. I'm certainly not going to do it anymore. I've finished my war book now. The next one I write is going to be fun.
This one is a failure, and had to be, since it was written by a pillar of salt.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Billy had a framed prayer on his office wall which expressed his method for keeping going, even though he was unenthusiastic about living. A lot of patients who saw the prayer on Billy’s wall told him that it helped them to keep going, too. It went like this: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.” Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future.”
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How nice -- to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.”
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