Back cover:
At 2:27 P.M. on February 13th of the year 2001, the Universe suffered a crisis in self-confidence. Should it go on expanding indefinitely? What was the point?

I had assumed that a book called 'Timequake' would be science fiction, but it turned out to be a humourous ramble through Kurt Vonnegut's head, more in the form of linked articles than a continuous narrative. It reminded me a little of Garrison Keillor's 'Lake Wobegon Days' series in its laid-back voice. I have never read anything else by Kurt Vonnegut, so I was keen to read this, and when I picked it up, I was drawn straight in. It's a quirky mix of reminiscences of self and family, philosophising about life and society, interspersed with the tale of what might happen if there was a glitch in time, and we all had to repeat the past ten years of our lives, fully conscious of what was going to happen and unable to exercise any free will, or change our fate. Imagine you had died at that moment, or something terrible had happened in those ten years and you had to go through it again.

There are some interesting ideas in this book. What if the USA had become more socialist after WWII and Russia had become more like America? Was his wife a useless housewife because his father-in-law had imagined a European-style aristocracy for America, where daughters would be merely ornamental?

Vonnegut reveals a pessimistic view of the future, where people will become illiterate and unable to converse as a result of television which provides them with mindless entertainment without exercising their brains. Written in 1997, 'Timequake' predates the multitude of channels devoted to history, geography, the environment, etc., but also of course, the prevalence of reality TV. He also worries about the loss of the book, but points out that books were originally just a convenient means of storing and transmitting language.
"by accident, not by cunning calculation, books, because of their weight and texture, and because of their sweetly token resistance to manipulation, involve our hands and eyes, and then our minds and souls, in a spiritual adventure I would be very sorry for my grandchildren not to know about."
I'm sure he would have enjoyed the debate about Kindles or paper books, and relieved to find that people who enjoy books do so in any format. Conversely, non-readers won't be convinced by a format.

There are also some quotable quotes in this book:

"Why throw money at problems? That is what money is for.
Should the nation's wealth be redistributed? It has been and continues to be redistributed to a few people in a manner strikingly unhelpful."

"Tellers of stories with ink on paper, not that they matter anymore, have been either swoopers or bashers. Swoopers write a story quickly, higgledy-piggledy, crinkum-crankum, any which way. Then they go over it again painstakingly, fixing everything that is just plain awful or doesn't work. Bashers go one sentence at a time, getting it exactly right before they go on to the next one. When they're done they're done.
I am a basher. Most men are bashers, and most women are swoopers."

Undoubtedly Mr. Vonnegut would be fascinated to discover the opportunities created by blogging and self-publishing. He comments that it was a shame that you needed qualifications to do anything in the modern world, rather than just trying it to see if you liked it as he had been able to do in his youth. Paradoxically he bemoans the computer's power of allowing laymen to carry out an expert's job, with his story of the architect who committed suicide when he realised a computer programme could do his job. It's interesting to see how opportunities to do just that are now opened up by technology, allowing start-ups to grow into big businesses, individuals to declare themselves experts and become internet gurus.

One thing I think Vonnegut would agree with, and that's that "it's complicated."

Taken to the opening meeting at obczHOFinOSS.

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before the end of 2013. My reading goal is 36 books.
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2013. My goal is 15,000.

I chose this book at the end of the meeting in Oss. I'll take it to OBCZ Bagels & Beans, Putstraat 4, 6131HL Sittard (NL). It'll find a new reader there soon!