A Time to Kill vs Gone With the Wind: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Fiction
A Time to Kill
“Billy Ray Cobb was the younger and smaller of the two rednecks.”
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A Time to Kill is a 1989 legal thriller and debut novel by American author John Grisham. The novel was rejected by many publishers before Wynwood Press eventually gave it a 5,000-copy printing. When Doubleday published…
Gone With the Wind
“SCARLETT O'HARA was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.”
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Margaret Mitchell's monumental epic of the South won a Pulitzer Prize, gave rise to the most popular motion picture of our time, and inspired a sequel that became the fastest selling novel of the century. It is one of…
Side by side
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Gone With the Wind has the widest readership — 1269875 ratings behind its score.
Scores by source
| A Time to Kill | Gone With the Wind | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 4.1 (833392) | 4.3 (1269875) |
| Hardcover | 5.0 (1) | 3.0 (40) |
| Google Books | — | 4.5 (9) |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (1667) | 5.0 (28) |
Reception
| A Time to Kill | Gone With the Wind | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 833392 | 1269875 |
| Editions | 79 | 362 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 240240 | 952729 |
| Reading it now | 11180 | — |
| Written reviews | 8286 | 28126 |
| Wikipedia attention | 8768 | 25618 |
| Pages | 718 | 824 |
Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: A Time to Kill or Gone With the Wind?
Gone With the Wind has the higher combined reader rating across sources (Gone With the Wind 4.3/5, A Time to Kill 4.1/5).
Which is shorter to read: A Time to Kill or Gone With the Wind?
A Time to Kill is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: A Time to Kill (718 pages, ≈ 13 h 18 m); Gone With the Wind (824 pages, ≈ 15 h 16 m).
Which is harder to read: A Time to Kill or Gone With the Wind?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — A Time to Kill: Moderate; Gone With the Wind: Challenging.
Have both books been made into films?
A Time to Kill: 3 film adaptations; Gone With the Wind: 1 film adaptation.