Last night, for the first time since I was a kid reading a choose-your-own-adventure book, I sat down and read a book completely in one sitting. Granted it’s a very quick read–I’m talking an hour or two tops–but it was the first time in a long time that I know I’m going to read a book again and again well into the future. This is something I never really do with books; rarely even do it with movies.

The book is A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut. I’ve known the man was really sharp and interesting for a long time. I’ve read some of his writing before that I ran across over time and saw him on TV every once in a while–the last time was on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. This book really got through to me though and makes me wish I would have read some of his stuff a long time ago. It made me laugh and think more than anything I’ve read in a long time.

The book is funny at times, really funny, while it’s also somewhat dark and depressing. It comes across as being very honest and it felt like getting to sit down with Kurt and just letting him talk for a couple of hours about how he sees things in the world today.

I’d highly recommend this to anyone. It’s an extremely simple read, super fast to get through (it’s only 146 pages with a huge font), and is simply worth what little time it takes to read. I’m going to try to convince Meg to read it now (she pretty much just reads fiction books that have the potential to make her cry) which might not be easy but I know I look forward to reading it and any other books he’s written as soon as I can. I just went ahead and ordered two of his other books a minute ago: Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five (The Children’s Crusade).