Another volume I feel grateful for having somehow missed in high school. All of the classics you read during your primary and secondary education are meant to instruct by example: this is good writing, so write like this to be good.
This sort of education my imitation is helpful, of course, but it also lends itself (at least in my case) to reading works not when they are most spiritually resonant but when they are linguistically accessible. For the mechanics of writing, you want to engage with texts that are at or slightly beyond your comfort level to help you learn. This makes sense. You read this book in high school because a high school student can learn a lot from it – of course.
++ i liked SH5 in highschool, but I'm going back and reading through all of Vonneguts work now and I'm always impressed but how he so accurately encapsulates mature concepts in a way that teens can imagine enough to relate to them, and adults can directly be like "wow he is describing something to the core of it". Tackling depressing concepts while staying in some sense light-hearted, and being critical without ever feeling malicious or condescending.