I love Kurt Vonnegut. My roommate in DC got me into him and I've been hooked ever since.
Timequake was written five years before Vonnegut died. It's not so much a novel, but more the ramblings of a man near death. The story is that the universe stopped expanding and time went back 10 years, which we were doomed to repeat. However, the story is not the focus, but Vonnegut's views on religion, death, family, the human condition, writing, gender, etc. I thought it was great, often hilarious, and always insightful. Please read this book, along with everything else he has ever written.
This book is chock full of insightful quotes. I've included a few of my favorites, but there really are too many to keep track of. But, that's Vonnegut for you - just too awesome.
On writing:
Let me note that Kilgore Trout and I have never used semicolons. They don't do anything, don't suggest anything. They are transvestite hermaphrodites.
On art:
Pictures are famous for their humanness, and not their pictureness.
On humans:
Many people need desperately to receive this message: "I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people don't care about them. You are not alone."
