Welcome to Litsy!

"There is nothing I could do about it. As an Earthling, I had to believe whatever clocks said - and calendars." So it goes.
I adore Vonnegut, and hate war so this re-read was a great choice for my first book of 2026.
I wish I had better language to explain why Vonnegut's writing from the satire through lines to the ironic names, down to the individual sentence structures just completely works for me. He was a brilliant man. 5⭐

Vonnegut choosing Valley Of The Dolls as the only English language book a group of aliens has to give to Billy is such an interesting choice for Vonnegut.

It has me curious if I was writing a book and my aliens were to give a book to their captive what would it be?

Excuse the bombardment of posts!!

I always like to take a snapshot of my TBR bookcase at the beginning of the year when it is neat and tidy and ready to go ?

Tagging my fist read of the year one I love so much I have a tattoo that says "so it goes"

Billy Pilgrim is a hapless, helpless soldier in WWII. He witnesses horrendous acts of violence and the destruction of Dresden. He survives to return to home just to be abducted by aliens. The story is conveyed through glimpses of his life as he is bouncing around the timeline. Using dark humor and an underlying sadness, there is a poignant story to be pieced together. This is a short and interesting book and is well worth reading.

I read this in HS and just reread it - I only remembered some parts. Definitely couldn‘t have appreciated it in HS as I do now. This is worth a second pass if you read it when you were young.

Hate to say it, but I just wasn‘t in the mood. I‘m sure this book deserves all the praise but I can‘t add to it tonight. #AuthorAMonth

This was not for me. #bookspin and #authoramonth for September @TheAromaofBooks @Soubhiville

At least once a season, I read or re-read a classic.

3 favorites
Slaughterhouse Five (love it so much I got this tattoo)
Song of Solomon
Interview with the Vampire

I have read most of Ian McEwans books and Cement Garden is his worst by miles and miles.

#TLT @dabbe

1- yes it can expand and reflect your own experiences of the time period

2-tagged is Vonnegut‘s response to the turbulent and existentialist absurdity/cruelty of the Vietnam war era

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

Play? @Bookwormjillk @AmyG @dabbe

«Billy Pilgrim says that the Universe does not look like a lot of bright little dots to the creatures from Tralfamadore. The creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti.»

Starting a new buddy read with @Tanisha_A 🥰
I heard so much about this one- so happy I‘m finally getting to it!

I have a strong suspicion that anything I could say has already been said about such a renowned book. Except perhaps, that it's not my favourite Vonnegut, or the one that made the biggest impact. That award still goes to Mother Night. Slaughterhouse-Five doesn't simply wrap a tale of the travesties of war up in a 'might be sci fi - probably the effects of trauma on a veteran and POW' narrative with the aliens and the time travel. 1/?

“So it goes“

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

7/20
Join if you would like!

#20Covers

#Veterans 🫡 #DaysDevotedTo… 🍂☕️🧣🍁🌙🥧🕯

#BookNerd 🤓📚💙

I really enjoyed Vonnegut‘s writing style and his take on a WWII story. Billy Pilgrim was a POW in Slaughterhouse-Five when Dresden was bombed. Vonnegut spins the story by using time travel to tell Billy‘s story during the war and his life before/after the war. He also adds a twist of an alien abduction. This book left me wondering how much actually happened and how much was in Billy‘s head, much like I felt after reading Life of Pi.

In Indianapolis this weekend for a Fever game but wouldn‘t have left without a visit to the Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library. So interesting to learn more about his life growing up and read personal correspondence.

#Indy #KVML

@Tkimsal ... look what just arrived! Thank you again! 🤩🤗😀

I will gladly share my gently used copy of Slaughterhouse-Five with a reader in the United States. If you are interested, please comment on this post.

Billy Pilgrim gets around!

#Controversial #ItTakesAllKinds ☘️🌈🌷🌞

#BookNerd 🤓📚💙

This is an excellent “comic”:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3kswUuMjGN/?igsh=bHN6dmRwdjAzNjlt

#SundayFunday @BookMarkTavern
I have 2 -
“So It Goes“ that is in the steam off my coffee cup wich I got in Seattle - I absolutely love Kurt Vonnegut and his whole philosopy of life
And up my arm in with my travel tattoos is my little gnome reading a book which I got in Iceland.

I 💓getting when I travel, others are the Bohr model for oxygen my divorce 1, a sloth I got in San Jose Costa Rica & you can see a most of my CDMX roadrunner.

I‘ve toyed with the idea of getting a tiny “So it goes” on my arm (and “Let it be” in the same place on the opposite arm). Maybe someday. But I think my next tattoo will be a starfish, because I love the starfish story (“I made a difference to that one”). #SundayFunday

5/5

Happy Thanksgiving! Today I express my ongoing gratitude for book lovers. You‘re smart, friendly, empathetic, giving and all around good eggs!

This month for book club. #FirstSaturdayReaders

Well, that was a wild and hallucinagenic ride—one which I really enjoyed I might add. Vonnegut‘s anti war classic about Billy Pilgrim‘s life is a fever dream of a story—a ridiculous, farcical, sad, funny, sublime, and an in your face story that is hard to put down. Fantastic book and while this was the first Vonnegut book I‘ve read (I know, I don‘t know how I went so long without reading any of his books), it won‘t be the last.

This book definitely falls into the “how is it possible I‘ve never read this book…because I haven‘t or, if I have, I don‘t remember doing so” category. That changes today as it‘s going to be my read for my commute downtown.

#OutAndAbout #ReadingOnTheTrain

It‘s not often that I think a book deserves 5 stars but this one definitely does. The only way I can describe this book is cool. Like it was just so interesting. The way it played with the concept of time made me want to read this in one sitting. The first chapter is a little confusing but after that it gets so accessible and interesting. Yes of course there‘s also the horrors and atrocities but overall interesting

A few other unbelievable gems from Lilly Library in Bloomington, Indiana.
1) Illustrated Canterbury Tales from the 1400s
2) Tiny books
3) Sylvia Plath's hair (seriously creepy)
4) Vonnegut's own notes on his Slaughterhouse Five manuscript

The best way I can describe this book is by the quote on the back cover- “a funny book at which you are not permitted to laugh, a sad book without tears.” I didn‘t really know what to expect going in to this, but Vonnegut really just solidified his place as one of my favorite authors. He is just able to bring to light some of the realest and most shocking human qualities in a satirically funny way. This is a book I definitely need to read again

I appreciated this iconic novel about the many horrors of World War II more than I enjoyed it. The (nonlinear) plot: Billy Pilgrim, the author stand-in, travels through time as he visits different eras of his life, including (but not limited to) the Allied firebombing of Dresden and an abduction by aliens. The reading experience was complex…powerful, unpredictable, funereal, brisk and confident yet thematically heavy as a sledgehammer.

#FavoriteBannedBook 🚫📕 #MarchMagic 💚💰🌈🍀

#ReadBannedBooks 😊

#BookNerd 🤓📚💙

^^p171 “Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. […] Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer.
So it goes.”

P29 “The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral.”

Time for this decade‘s visit to Tralfamadore & the ceremonial counting of the “so it goeses” (over 100!). Personality fracturing. Survivor‘s guilt. Simultaneity, getting unstuck in time. Outrageous, inane logic of combat. Luck, chance. Detachment in the face of brutality. “So it goes”=refrain for death of lice, death of novel, as much as for soldiers & civilians. Clever time travel trope, the everpresentness of traumatic event. Poo-tee-weet? 1968

I did a thing today, I just so happened to be passing by Indianapolis for work so I took a little detour and it was amazing. @britt_brooke

🙌👍😱Wish I could go! Happy one hundredth! 💞 https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/2022/11/04/kurt-vonnegut-centennial-mu...

Using today's extra hour to finally finally read this!

I think I am finally old (and cynical) enough to enjoy and appreciate Vonnegut‘s satire. 😂 Vonnegut‘s contemplations on war, life, time, and free will left me with all the feels. At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, the autobiographical elements with Vonnegut‘s own experiences as a WWII POW heighten the effect. It‘s easy to insert Vonnegut for the fictional Billy Pilgrim, and want to shield him from the absurdity that is life. So it goes. 4⭐️

This book has stuck with me for years. A definite must read!

#alphabetgame #letterS @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Very apt and succinct anti-war read. Charming and witty

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I have no idea how to review this! It was my #LMPBC pick for a group reading classics and I had no idea what to expect. A largely satirical anti-war novel with some really fantastic writing. I have a hard time with fantastical stuff in books and there was a bit of that, but it moved fast and was a great read. A strong pick—I‘ll definitely add more Vonnegut in the future! @BeckyWithTheGoodBooks it‘s on its way to you!

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