Breakfast of Champions vs Gravity's Rainbow: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Science Fiction, Fiction
Breakfast of Champions
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Breakfast Of Champions is vintage Vonnegut. One of his favorite characters, aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. The result is murderously funny…
Gravity's Rainbow
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Winner of the National Book Award"The most profound and accomplished American novel since the end of World War II." —The New Republic“A screaming comes across the sky. . .” A few months after the Germans’ secret V-2…
Side by side
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Breakfast of Champions is the quickest read — about 5 hours vs 21 for Gravity's Rainbow.
- Breakfast of Champions has the widest readership — 285692 ratings behind its score.
- Breakfast of Champions runs the darker storyline; Gravity's Rainbow stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Breakfast of Champions | Gravity's Rainbow | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 4.1 (285692) | 4.0 (49955) |
| Hardcover | 3.9 (724) | 3.0 (1) |
| Apple Books | 4.0 (391) | 4.0 (175) |
Reception
| Breakfast of Champions | Gravity's Rainbow | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 285692 | 49955 |
| Editions | 60 | 44 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 189310 | 137 |
| Reading it now | 6568 | 2 |
| Written reviews | 12666 | 3 |
| Wikipedia attention | 9158 | 31785 |
| Pages | 322 | 1160 |
Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: Breakfast of Champions or Gravity's Rainbow?
Breakfast of Champions has the higher combined reader rating across sources (Breakfast of Champions 4.1/5, Gravity's Rainbow 4.0/5).
Which is shorter to read: Breakfast of Champions or Gravity's Rainbow?
Breakfast of Champions is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: Breakfast of Champions (322 pages, ≈ 5 h 58 m); Gravity's Rainbow (1160 pages, ≈ 21 h 29 m).
Which is harder to read: Breakfast of Champions or Gravity's Rainbow?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — Breakfast of Champions: Moderate; Gravity's Rainbow: Challenging.
Have both books been made into films?
Breakfast of Champions: 2 film adaptations; Gravity's Rainbow: no film adaptation on record.