Thursday, April 12, 2007

RIP, Kurt

Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84

Way back when, he was the first author that when I read one book, I bought his whole backlist. What authors had a huge impact on you?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, total bummer; that was the news on the radio that I woke up to this morning. My husband was heavily influenced by both Vonnegut and P.K. Dick; I got into them because he kept handing me their books to read. Vonnegut was definitely one of world's great originals.

Anonymous said...

My stepson is named for Kurt V. My husband is in mourning.

Lynn said...

Hi, Nienke. I was saddened when I read the news. Vonnegut was definitely one of the greats, an inspiration.

One of my earliest influences was Bradbury.

---Lynn
formerly of Spilling Ink

Crystal* said...

Sorry to hear about Kurt. A loss for the literary world.

I was influenced by Nora Roberts who I found late in life. The first romance I ever read that had the heroine using the "F" word. Can't begin to tell you how freeing that was. *grins*

Jeff said...

I'm also a fan of Vonnegut's writing. He was one of the few writers who could make me laugh out loud while I was reading.
He will be missed.

Unknown said...

Authors that had a huge impact?

Philip K. Dick for all his wacky ideas. When I was younger, Albert Camus and Anthony Burgess. I used to be a little obsessed with my own existential angst so books like The Plague and A Clockwork Orange seemed to speak to me, although that seems a lifetime ago and I'm in a very different place now.

I only recently read Slaughterhouse Five so I'm new to the Vonnegut fanbase.

Some people say they were given Vonnegut as reading assignments in school. I was stuck reading stuff like The Scarlet Letter. Would have much rather been reading Slaughterhouse or something along those lines.