Goodbye, Blue Monday

I just found out Kurt Vonnegut died today, at the age of 84. He was a really fun writer to read, which is nice. I wouldn't call his writing particularly eloquent, or whatever makes a writer "great." But he made terrible things entertaining. He made it ok to laugh even though so much of the world has gone to shit.
These are books that he wrote that I really like:
Slaughterhouse Five
Breakfast of Champions (My favorite)
Cat's Cradle
Mother Night
Welcome to the Monkeyhouse

Apparently he only wrote 14 novels, which I didn't know, because it seemed like a lot. But some of his books are collections of short stories (the Monkeyhouse above) or prose. Anyway, it's spectacularly terrifying to read Slaughterhouse Five and realize that the story that he is telling you has real parts that were from his actual life. And that in turn makes you grateful he wrote about it. So if you haven't, you should pick up a copy. If for any other reason than because he just died, and people will be touched, I guess.

I got to see him speak in 1998 at Ohio State, which was actually an incredible experience. At first I had to sit in another room (one of three maybe) watching him on video. But then everyone left and they had a Q&A, which me and my friends got to go and sit in on. In it, he told a story about the dirtiest limerick ever told, which you can find in one of his books. It's pretty funny if it's told right.

So it goes.