Cat’s Cradle

Check out "The Timeless Way of Building" if you want non fiction or anything by Vonnegut. I'd personally start with Cat's Cradle.

Re-reading Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle after being in Silicon Valley after a while really illuminated the character-type I found myself surrounded by: emotionally detached geniuses absentmindedly ruining the world. His style of storytelling is just great. He leaves so much off the page with his short style that at the end you get that feeling you’ve experienced something profound that can’t quiet be put into words.

Slaughterhouse-Five, Galapagos, Sirens of Titan Basically, any Kurt Vonnegut book that isn't Cat's Cradle (good but overrated). Bias note: I'm still young, but these shaped me easily.

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. The story gradually unfurls itself from the first few pages and new layers are constantly being added. It was written a few years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki but seems even more relevant today. It's very short and can be read in a single sitting if one is determined.

Vonnegut (Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse 5), Bukowski (Postman). Steinbeck (Tortilla flat). All their stuff is good, but those are my favorites :)

The Stranger, Catch-22, Cat's Cradle

Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle! I read it yesterday afternoon. "Science" (i.e. what other people think of it) has a big role in it, but there are a lot of facts in it, too. It's a well-written book that'll leave you thinking for sure..

Professionally, The Art of Project Management did the most for me. Privately, general-fiction-wise, The Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami did the most for me. Privately, SF-wise, three books by Kurt Vonnegut: Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-five and The Sirens of Titan

Kurt Vonnegut has some good stuff. Slaughterhouse Five, Cats Cradle and I really liked A Man Without a Country. The Discworld series (Terry Prachett) is good if you liked HHG

I really enjoyed _The Sirens of Titan_ and _Cat's Cradle_, too.

Some recents: Surely You're Joking Mr Feynmann is a good read. As is Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle As is Hugh Laurie's The Gun Seller And I'm just getting into Orwell's Keep The Aspidistra Flying which is quite good too.

Asimov's two big universes, found in the Robots series and the Foundation series, (which turned out to be the same when he revisited them in the 70's and 80's) are simply wonderful. By far my favorite sci-fi, and among the most enduring works in the genre. I read them both every two or three years, and sometimes grab one off the shelf when I just want something to read. The early Foundation is sort of a future history version of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (I seem to recall that was intentional, actually). Asimov's autobiographies and the posthumous book of his correspondence are all fantastic and insightful. I learned a lot from them, and my admiration for the man increased even more upon reading them. Dune is also astoundingly good, though after the first three, the quality goes downhill (slowly, but surely). Definitely lots to think about.…