Another great author lost

Michael Crichton died recently (November 4th, 2008).

Although Mr. Crichton was not among my very favorite authors I enjoyed his work. I loved his "Jurassic Park" novel, and a friend gave me his book "State of Fear". I enjoyed the book and I liked how he put together credible (if fictional) arguments about global warming science.

I think by far his favorite novel I have read is "The Andromeda Strain". I read it the first time in junior high and re-read it in college.

Maybe I'll pick up "State of Fear" and give it another read, or buy "Next" the last book published before he died. One thing is certain - Mr. Critchton's books will sit on my bookshelf, waiting for my daughter to get to an age when I can start to share them with her.

Kurt is up in Heaven now

I just read a post that shocked me. I was looking at Indexed and I thought that Jessica Hagy had captured perfectly the wit of Kurt Vonnegut. I tagged the post and moved on. Then I started to notice that in my RSS reader there were a number of Vonnegut posts and references.
I knew it wasn't Mr. Vonnegut's birthday so I was a bit surprised that a whole bunch of people decided to write about him at once. Then I got to Cory Doctorow's post on Boing Boing. I am not a fan of Mr. Vonnegut's work like I am of someone like George R. R. Martin or Douglas Adams and as a Catholic I do not agree with his religious beliefs. However, I have read Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle several times. Both books are brilliant and timeless and should be read by everyone at least once in their lives. I find myself completely entranced by the Bokonon and by Billy Pilgrim. Every time I re-read these stories I find myself time traveling back to when I was a young man, reading Mr. Vonnegut's words for the first time.

I am sure everyone has heard the urban myth commencement address falsely attributed to Mr. Vonnegut. For many that was the first and only thing they have read by this wonderful author - which is unfortunate as he had so much more to say to the world. I am happy that that particular Internet myth swept through as it reminded me of Mr. Vonnegut's work and I went back and read Cat's Cradle again.

On a weekend I was planning to read all about Carl Sagan in Skeptic and maybe finish off the latest On Spec magazine I think I might find myself back on the island of San Lorenzo.

Kurt is up in Heaven now.