Prisoner of war, optometrist, time- traveller. These are the life roles of Billy Pilgrim, hereo fthis latter-day Pigrim’s Progress, a miraculously moving, bitter and funny story of innocence faced with apocalypse.

I suppose this is a classic and one should have read this. Thank you!

Got this from linguistkris today, to help her with her move. ;) I've unsuccessfully tried to listen to the audiobook version of this. Maybe it's Ethan Hawke's voice sending me to sleep each time, but I've never made it through. Let's try a real paper book for a change. I prefer those anyway. :))

Read this on a long train ride last Friday, and loved it almost as much as Catch-22 (which, of course, does different things to illustrate a similar point, if you know what I mean). I'd already read Breakfast of Champions, and I was glad to find my favourite stylistic device in this book too - the way Vonnegut describes things to an alien audience, adding a layer of abstraction as well as a layer of irony, e.g. "he described to him the artificial weather that Earthlings sometimes create for other Earthlings when they don't want those other Earthlings to inhabit Earth any more". I also really liked the Tralfamadorians' view of time - that nobody is ever really gone; that we all constantly exist in some place. (And that Vonnegut as the narrator's voice takes up their habit, even before the reader realizes why, of saying "so it goes" every time someone dies in the text).
I really feel like keeping this - but BookCrossing books should travel and collect readers, so I shall set it free again, possibly tonight. According to the (new) counting system (that separates wild and controlled releases), it will be my 2.500th wild release (whatever that means).

What's bookcrossing? It's a recycling game. It's the karma of books. You read the book, or pass it along to someone you think can appreciate it, or simply release it in a good place to be found again. Whatever you do, please leave an entry in this online journal so we can all follow its travels.

Thanks, and enjoy! :)