Jon bought Kurt Vonnegut's Timequake recently. I read pretty much every book that comes into the house (ok, every book) so I grabbed this one, and he let me get away with reading it before he did.

Jon puts up very nicely with my love of books. He builds me lots of shelves. But he's never been all that interested in books or reading himself. With one exception: Jon loves Vonnegut. He has a huge red book with a bunch of stories in it that he got from our friend Peter. I don't ever remember him not having that book, and I know he's read it lots of times.

After reading Timequake I felt like I got a different perspective on Vonnegut. I'm not sure exactly why - I think it gave me more of a feeling of who Vonnegut was. So now I've jumped into Jon's big red book, and I'm enjoying it much more than I did 20-some years ago when I read it the first time. I like the random thoughts he inserts in little ways throughout his stories. He doesn't elaborate on them. They're just there, waiting to be noticed. Here's one from Cat's Cradle:

''Self-taught, are you?'' Julian Castle asked Newt.
''Isn't everybody?'' Newt inquired.
''Very good answer.'' Castle was respectful.