Meditations vs Nineteen Eighty-Four: Which Should You Read?

Cover of Meditations Meditations Marcus Aurelius · 1626 ★★★★☆ 4.3 214 pages · ≈ 3 h 58 m · Demanding

Meditations is a collection of personal reflections and notes by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (reigned 161 to 180 AD), offering a profound look into the philosophy of Stoicism. It was never intended for…

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Cover of Nineteen Eighty-Four Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell · 1949 ★★★★☆ 4.2 244 pages · ≈ 4 h 31 m · Challenging
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often referred to as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by the English novelist George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair). It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker…

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1 film adaptationBanned book

The verdict

How to choose

Scores by source

MeditationsNineteen Eighty-Four
Goodreads 4.3 (378526) 4.2 (5733183)
Hardcover 4.2 (741) 5.0 (1)
Google Books 4.5 (2) —
Apple Books 4.5 (298) —

Reception

MeditationsNineteen Eighty-Four
Ratings 378526 5733183
Editions 643 536
Film adaptations 1 1
Want to read 675230 3170038
Reading it now 122246 —
Written reviews 22394 171557
Wikipedia attention 31655 140637
Pages 214 244

Side by side

MeditationsNineteen Eighty-FourEnjoymentDifficultyInfluencePopularityClassic

Shared themes