Reading: Get ready to board the "Nature Cruise of the Century"...

"There is another human defect which the Law of Natural Selection has yet to remedy: When people of today have full bellies, they are exactly like their ancestors of a million years ago: very slow to acknowledge any awful troubles they may be in." from Galapagos, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I went through a period in my life where I didn't read a fiction novel for about five years. Ironically, this period began shortly after reading Ishmael, the first book I recommended in this blog, which is technically a "fiction" novel. This period ended in early 2007, and it ended quickly and for the foreseeable future. I have since adopted a "one fiction then one non-fiction" rotational approach to my reading endeavors, and have found that it works quite well for me.

It took me twenty-seven years before I read my first Vonnegut novel...and just thirteen months to read seven more. This may tell you something that you may already know...reading Vonnegut can become a highly addictive habit. Of the eight books of his that I have read, there are four that were particularly memorable for me. Wait, make that five. The two classics Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five need no introduction, and if you were to read Vonnegut for the very first time one of these two novels would probably be the best place to start. I personally started with Cat's Cradle. The Sirens of Titan and Mother Night were both hilarious and extremely insightful...I could have easily chosen one of those two books for this write up...hell, I could have chosen any of the eight books I've read for this write up. He is an author that really grows on you, and it seems each new book of his that you read becomes a favorite. Of all the Vonnegut readers I know, almost everyone has a different book of his that they would consider their absolute favorite. I found that aspect to be a fairly telling bit of how gifted and diverse an author he really is...or rather, was.

The book of his that I am going to recommend here is one of his later novels...Galápagos, which was first published in 1985. This novel does not have the following of his other well-known works, but is still as pertinent today...actually, more so than it was when it was first released. There are a few reasons why this book seemed to resonate a little more strongly than some of his others...I believe a lot has to do with the timing of when I read it. I was finishing up graduate school, very disillusioned with American society/culture, and looking forward to traveling abroad to escape the insanity of Southern California. It was an very idealistic outlook at the time, but also very insightful...

To give some ideas of what this book is about without divulging any of the plot, I would say it is a book about evolution, popular culture, and the capabilities of the human brain. That is all I want to say about this story, as I do not want you go go into the book with any pre-conceived judgments of what the book is about.

You could say this is more a recommendation for reading Vonnegut's works than just reading Galápagos...and that's probably the best route to take when approaching his novels. I hope you're able to find the one book of his that resonates strongly with you...and when you do, be sure to tell others about it.