More from Vonnegut

Apologies, dear readers, for the lengthy departure.  But attempts to complete final revisions to MILO (now tentatively titled UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO), combined with the need to complete report cards for my students and a Border's Book of the Month Club questionnaire kept me quite busy for the last two weeks. 

But with all of those projects firmly behind me, I have a plethora of subjects upon which to write. 

Allow me to begin with some great news. 

For the past four years, I have been reading TIMEQUAKE, a novel by the late Kurt Vonnegut.  Vonnegut is probably my favorite writer, and when I began reading TIMEQUAKE, it occurred to me that this was the last Vonnegut novel that I had yet to read, and by all accounts, he had no plans to write any others.  This meant that I would have no more new Vonnegut novels to read, and as such, I made a vow to make this one last.

After his death in 2007, the assumption that TIMEQUAKE would be his last new novel for me became a certainty. 

I only allow myself to read a page or two of the book each week, permitting myself to re-read earlier sections of the text as much as I want, and I approach the five year mark with this book, I have yet to finish.  I'm about three-quarters of the way through, and though part of me yearns to finish reading it, I force myself to refrain.  Though I plan on re-reading many of Vonnegut's novels throughout my lifetime, these are the last of his words that I will read for the first time.

Or so I thought. 

This week I learned that Kurt Vonnegut’s longtime publisher, Delacorte Press, will issue 14 never-before published short stories by the author in a new collection entitled LOOK AT BIRDIE.  "Other original forthcoming titles will include a second collection of Vonnegut’s unpublished writings as well as a book of letters sent to and from the author over the course of his life."

I couldn't be more excited.

But now I am left wondering:  Should I go ahead and finish TIMEQUAKE and discover the fate of often-used, Vonnegut character Kilgore Trout or continue my snail's pace through the book?