Amazon.com is sold out of the big Vonnegut novels at the moment, and my usual web haunts have been filled with memorials:

• Warren Ellis
• Shaenon K. Garrity
• Matt Fraction
• Laurenn McCubbin
• Cory Doctorow (and again)
• Poputonian on Hullaboo

I’m surprised how many people first encountered Vonnegut at an early age. My first of his novels was Cat’s Cradle as an assignment in high school AP English. I wish I could say it was a lightning bolt that changed my life forever, but at the time I only thought it was “okay.” All I remember about it today is Ice-9.

Since then I read and greatly enjoyed Slaughterhouse-5, The Sirens of Titan, and his final book, A Man Without a Country. His combination of humanism, pessimism, and appreciation of the absurd resonates with me as an adult.

If his death has a silver lining, it’s that more people may be inspired to read his work.