Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut, and giving into trends.

So as you may or may not know, I'm a huge Chuck Palahniuk fan. I think he's absolutely freakin' amazing, and he is seriously a genius. I could go on for a really long time about him, but I'll spare you the detail. Suffice to say that I'm a fan.

So I was talking to Friend Number One, and she said "Oh, why don't you read Kurt Vonnegut? He's seriously JUST like Palahniuk, but funny."

I chose to ignore the dig at dear ol' Chuck (I find him absolutely hilarious at times) and thought about this. I hadn't read Vonnegut before. I merely knew him as a "funny old guy who wrote Slaughterhouse Five", a book that sounded completely rotten (based on the title alone).

Then, in class, we read Harrison Bergeron, and I realized just what the hell FNO had been talking about--he was amazing! His story was a beautiful dystopia (the only sub-category of Sci-Fi that I like), and he didn't overuse words. Brilliant.

So now I'm reading "Armageddon in Retrospect" (a $25 value for $4.99--seriously), and I'm very happy I decided (well, was forced) to read HB. Very good choice, teacher.

In the same trip to the bookstore, I got "Lullaby", by Chuck Palahniuk. I had been talking to Friend Number Two about him as well (I talk about books a lot), and she mentioned that her copy had been stolen. Aside from being shocked that she was so calm about it (stolen books?! call the cops!), I decided that, having not read it, I had to buy it. So I have, and it sounds promising.

My little brother wants to read it... I'm not sure how to explain that Palahniuk is NOT a good idea for an 8 year old to read. Or a 15 year old, probably, but Mom's given up on me reading "teen books". :D

I think I'm going to start limiting my time spent on this here interweb. I spend an average of 2 hours a day on here, just surfing the 'net, and it should stop.

... Starting tomorrow. :D