Tag Archives: 'reyding'

• Bagombo Snuff Box: The No-Talent Kid

  This is the first of three stories in Bagombo Snuff Box to revolve around George M. Helmholtz, director of the Lincoln High School marching band. The No-Talent Kid is Walter Plummer, who Helmholtz refers to simply as “Plummer,” an earnest clarinetist who really isn’t any good. But because Plummer lacks musical sense and is seemingly [...]

• Bagombo Snuff Box: The Package

  The Package is simply a story that makes you wish to gouge your eyes out as you read of Earl Fenton’s bragging. Earl certainly has bragging rights, however, as he and his wife Maude worked hard from their humble roots to make it rich. And now that they have all this money, they have purchased [...]

• Bagombo Snuff Box: Any Reasonable Offer

  Any Reasonable Offer is narrated in first person by a real estate agent. The realtor has had a hard time selling this one house until an out-of-town wealthy couple enters his life. They instantly love the house, and ensure that the high asking price is no problem. They would like, however, to get the “newness” [...]

• Bagombo Snuff Box: Mnemonics

  “Mnemonics is the art of improving the memory.” Alfred Moorhead had a hard time remembering things, and he was secretly in love with his secretary, Ellen. After attending a mnemonics class, Alfred was able to focus his memory by thinking about various Hollywood starlets in random scenes, and this would momentarily make him forget about [...]

• Bagombo Snuff Box: Thanasphere

  The first short story of the Bagombo Snuff Box collection is classic Vonnegut. Thanasphere is about a mission by the U.S. government to put a man in orbit two thousand miles above the earth’s surface. (Remember, this was written in the early fifties. This is some scary science fiction.) The man in space was to [...]

• Bagombo Snuff Box: Introduction

  When Vonnegut writes an introduction, you might as well consider it another chapter of the book, because you’d miss out if you didn’t read it. Vonnegut’s Introduction is a brief narrative of his career from his perspective, which had been guided, in one way or another, by what he refers to as “Fate,” although it [...]

• Bagombo Snuff Box: Preface

  To read or not to read the preface, especially one that is not written by the author of the book, is the question. If I’m not too interested in a book, I will usually skip all of the lowercase roman numeral pages. I’ve never really thought about the book’s dedication. Does it really make a [...]

• reyding: Bagombo Snuff Box by Kurt Vonnegut

  What a great way to start a reading series (formerly known as a “book club,” the reading series is this blog’s version of exercising the brain): Kurt Vonnegut’s Bagombo Snuff Box. Before television took off in the 1950s, short stories published in weekly and monthly magazines were the form of entertainment found in homes across [...]

• A New Chapter Unfolds (Let Me Blog It)

  Call it blogging karma; call it the big blogging sham. I’ve always thought of joining or starting an online book club (alright, “always” may not be the correct term; let’s go with “momentarily, here and there”), and what better way to commence then with the start of a new book, Kurt Vonnegut’s Bagombo Snuff Box. [...]