After finishing Player Piano I decided to go back and reread some of Vonnegut’s stories, which constituted the majority of his output from that period. Imagine my chagrin to find Welcome to the Monkey House missing from the library. Also gone: the posthumously released story collection Bagombo Snuff Box.

I guess I must have loaned/given them to somebody? This vaguely rings a bell. In fact I seem to remember giving away more than one copy of Monkey House when the fancy updated edition was released some years ago. Fortunately neither it nor Snuff Box was expensive to reacquire. They are currently en route from Fife, WA and Kansas City, MO respectively.

In the meantime I started reading another story collection I found on my shelf, Look at the Birdie. Here’s the first sentence of the first story. I think it bodes well.

The Summer had died peacefully in its sleep, and Autumn, as soft-spoken executrix, was locking life up safely until Spring came to claim it.