Bagombo Snuff Box

As I said, I spent a lot of time flying this past weekend, and I got a lot of reading done. This was a good one. It's short fiction (which I love) of Kurt Vonnegut (who I love) that was published back in the day before he was famous, but never collected into a book.

I really enjoyed most of them. It was funny, but the three that he says he reworked for the book were the ones that I liked the least - becuase, frankly, in my mind, Vonnegut's kinda gone to shit in recent years. His older stuff was better. Which is why I bought this book - more older stuff!

As always, his war stories are strange and evocative, and very much like you're there. But they're not gross. And I appreciate that.

In the introduction, he talks about the 8 rules of short fiction, and how all the great writers (which he does not claim to be) break most of them.

Here's the first, and only unbreakable rule. Hopefully, even in blogging, I don't break it...

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

And... I'm off to Kill Bill Vols. 1 and 2 at the Tivoli! It'll be fun! Wish you were there!