Author, Kurt Vonnegut?

Question

Do you have to read his books in any certain order?

Answer 1

You clearly don't HAVE to, but you will enjoy them more if you read them in the order they were written; various characters that are stars of their own sub-plots turn up in subsequent books, so you get a better picture of them and their stories by reading Vonnegut's 'main' stories in the order they were written.

"Kilgore Trout" becomes a far more entertaining character if you read the books 'in order'.

So it goes...

Hi ho!

Answer 2

I don't think so.  But if I did have to pick out an order, it would be this:

Slaughterhouse-Five

Cat's Cradle

Deadeye d**k

Breakfast of Champions

Mother Night

Hocus Pocus

Bluebeard

Sirens of Titan

Timequake

Palm Sunday

Galapagos

I haven't read Player Piano, Slapstick, or Jailbird.  But that should be a good order to get the best of his work covered.  I LOVE Cat's Cradle, but Slaughterhouse-Five is the first book I read by him so I leave that on top.  Deadeye d**k and Bluebeard are not talked about as often, but they are excellent novels.  Breakfast of Champions is off-beat, to say the least, but very funny.  Timequake is his last, great novel.  In short, I'd recommend reading close to the chronology in which he wrote them, excepting the works he feels less confident about (he gives grades to his books in Palm Sunday, so you might want to look there too).