h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Kurt Vonnegut at his finest. An author who even DNA himself read. This book contains characters from a number of his other books and is a good introduction into his written work. The book is about insanity and a science fiction author who can only get printed in cheap porno magazines. Darkly funny and ironic, an excelent read for anyone.

i love this book!!! ^_^ it's fun to read, and it makes you think...it's one of the ones i'm doing my junior literery analysis paper on. i can't believe i forgot to mention it before. my copy is actually from the seventies, in great shape until i discovered it lying around. the drawings are the best part...well, the whole thing is so good, maybe not best, but they're great.....i still crack up wen i see a * in writing (giggles). i really enjoyed cat's cradle too, and slaughterhouse-5 i would recommend to anyone. i'm currently reading bagombo snuffbox, great so far.

kurt vonnegut is about the only person i know who can get away with being rude! i loved 'breakfast of champions' - especially the illos! (my favourite was his drawing of that funny eye-on-top-of-a-pyramid thingy that appears on dollar bills, and his 'in odd we trust'...<snicker&gt

Great Book, from one of my all-time favourite authors. But I am here to recommend Jailbird.
After Slaughterhouse Five was made into such a great movie, Hollywood was breathing down Vonnegut's neck as he finnished Breakfast of Champions, and he sold the movie rights to Ken Russell, who subsequently found making the movie too daunting, and so he shelved it. (As you have heard, the movie was finally made recently, but it is having trouble "getting out").
When he sat down to write Jailbird, he had to buy Kilgore Trout back from Russell before he was allowed to use him in the new book!!!
I found the flavour of Jailbird to be the best of all of them. Trout is lovely, but the bag lady is wonderful. So, if you like Breakfast of Champions, you must try Jailbird.

This seems like the right thread to chip in my own 'must read', which is "Timequake" by Kurt Vonnegut. It's his characteristically skewed take on autobiography. If I pick it up to read it again, I always end up feeling much happier about my lot once I've finished it. It really does have that effect on me. As one of the reviewer quotes on the dust cover states, "reading Timequake... I feel privileged to have spent several hours in the company of a most genial, affable and upbeat soul indeed" (Nicholas Royle, Literary Review).

That's why you should read it. To precis what it actually is: it's partly straight autobiography, partly the biography of his self-acknowledged alter ego Kilgore Trout, and partly a cute way of sneaking more of his excellent short stories into a market that has lost interest in short stories. Even given these stylistic departures it's still the most direct commentary and opinions of 'life the universe and everything' that Vonnegut has published.

As for the "Breakfast of Champions" movie, my local cinema deserve an honourable mention for showing it, whereas the director and producers deserve a dishonourable mention for making such a dog's breakfast of it. It's dire - stick to the books!

one good thing about the "breakfast of champions" movie is seeing nick nolte run screaming down the street in lingerie an screaming Mauii. a highlight in an otherwise disapointing movie.
the only reason i picked breakfast is it was the first one i read and it got me hooked. i now own 15 of his books and i recomend each one of them. however, player piano is a little tedious.