BOOKS: "busy, busy, busy"

I have been keeping a new year's resolution for over over two years now. Basically I resolved to read any book that anyone directly recommends me to read.*

This has lead me to read some great books that I would not have otherwise come across (e.g. Dawkin's "The Selfish Gene"), but has also meant that I have subjected myself to some painful long drawn out reads (Tom Robbin's "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" springs to mind), since for some reason beyond my comprehension, I feel compelled to finish reading a book once I have started one.

I am glad to say that the book I have just finished - Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" - falls into the first category, because my nearest and dearest recommended it to me.

It is one of those fantastically written short novellas in that - not only is it incredibly easy to read, but it is also a very rewarding read. Reading Vonnegut it is evident that he is a man of great, humor depth and soul. His delicate appraisal of mankind's faults, which leads to the creation Ice Nine and ultimately the destruction of the world, is delivered with a tender humanism. Like the faux religion, which is created in the novel in the form of The Books of Bokonon, there is no bombast about his writing. He just creates a web of correlations and lets you draw your own conclusions.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*WARNING: This is a powerful privilge, do not abuse it by recommending me to read the yellow pages or Leonardo DeCaprio's biography, OK?