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I fell in love with Vonnegut when I was in college.

A friend recommended Catcher in the Rye, but it didn't appeal to me, so he suggested Cat's Cradle.

After that I went on a binge.

I know Slaughterhouse-5 gets all the accolades, but for me Breakfast of Champions is my all time favorite novel.

I also found Ready Player One very entertaining. My favorite Vonnegut book is Cat's Cradle so I say start there.

Cat's Cradle was the only book that was required reading in high school that I actually liked, and it's still one of my favourites. As a result I've read just about every one of Vonnegut's books.

I know, I'm dying to know what snarky sophomoric Internet dweebs think about Cat's Cradle rather than just read it for myself. :)

Cat's Cradle is tied for the funniest book I've ever read--it's absolutely hilarious from start to finish, while also remaining poignant to this day. The other book is A Confederacy of Dunces, which, like Cat's Cradle, causes me to smile fondly when I remember scenes and quotes from it.

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Selected Poems by e.e. cummings

A Chorus of Stones by Susan Griffin

Anything that makes you think about something a little differently can change your life forever.

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

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.

Kurt Vonnegut is really great, my personal favorite is Sirens of Titan which is his most "sci-fi" of the bunch but I wouldn't really call it sci-fi. Other great starting points are Cat's Cradle, Mothernight, and of course Slaughterhouse Five.

I've only read one Toni Morrison book, Song of Solomon, but that was one of my favorite reads of this year.

If you haven't read Frankenstein or Dracula then I would highly recommend them. I personally enjoyed Frankenstein much more than I thought I would.

Norse Mythology and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman are also fun reads.

If you want some non-fiction, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is a very engaging read.

Vonnegut is definitely in the same camp as Adams and Pratchett. I like to think that Adams was influenced by Vonnegut in his own writing, as Sirens could easily have passed for a Douglas Adams novel if it'd had more jokes and a bit more Britishness.

One thing Adams and Vonnegut have in common is their almost nihilistic sense of cosmic absurdity and the futility of purpose. Without spoiling anything, the whole story in The Sirens of Titan turns out to be meaningless. A bit like how, in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, we eventually realize that Earth was originally created by little white, superintelligent mice to compute, over billions of years, the meaning of life, the universe and everything. (The answer isn't... terribly useful.) It's absurd, and funny, and sad at the same time.

Vonnegut got more eccentric in his writing over time, but Sirens is actually very straightforward, and it's a masterpiece. Give it a shot. Cat's Cradle is also excellent. I never liked Slaughterhouse Five, which everyone recommends, as much.

A high school English teacher spoiled me by having us read Cat's Cradle instead of the more common/historical Slaughterhouse Five. Great kickoff to a lifelong love of his satire.
Cat's Cradle shows both the horror and absurdity of Nuclear War. It's unbelievable to imagine losing all the world's water and yet anyone can fathom how actually horrific it would be. This is Vonnegut's gift. Hard to imagine another write who can make you feel knowledgeable and challenged but also doesn't require some deep subject/stylistic knowledge of the allegories to be in on the joke.
Breakfast of Champions is also a must read. No book has ever made me laugh out loud both at the deadpan delivery and absurdity.

Kurt Vonnegut's works: The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, Player Piano, Jailbird, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater...

Find the time to read Vonnegut.

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Rise and Decline of Nations by Mancur Olson

Most recommended:

- Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life and Others.

- Lawrence Weschler - Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees. A quality biography of Robert Irwin based on interviews over decades, and helps you learn to appreciate minimalist art to boot.

- Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

- Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions

- Burton G. Malkiel - A Random Walk Down Wall Street

- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Americanah. Saw myself in several of these characters

- Nikos Kazantzakis - Zorba the Greek

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Also good:

- Jack London - John Barleycorn: Alcoholic Memoirs. Illustrates all of the interesting ways in which a person is tempted to drink: when someone else buys you one, when it's cold outside, ...

- Danny Bowien - The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook. Lots of stories between the recipes.

- David Byrne - How Music Works

- Meg Jay - The Defining Decade

- Ernest Hemingway - A Moveable Feast

- Magdalena Droste - Bauhaus 1919-1933

- Arimasa Osawa - Shinjuku Shark

- Zadie Smith - Changing My Mind

- Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart

- Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray

- Marie Kondo - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

- Haruki Murakami - The Strange Library. A fifteen minute read.

- Tim Ferriss - The Four-Hour Workweek. Good tactics for saving time; bad business advice.

- Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle

- John Berger - Ways of Seeing