Poems vs Tender Buttons: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Modern Poetry, Poetry
vs
Tender Buttons
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Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons: Objects, Food, Rooms from 1914 is a poetic exploration of words - clustered, juxtaposed, redefined and played off one another - to subterfuge their common meanings, which Stein felt had…
Side by side
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Tender Buttons is the quickest read — about 1 hours vs 9 for Poems.
- Tender Buttons has the widest readership — 7349 ratings behind its score.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Poems | Tender Buttons | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 3.6 (7349) |
| Hardcover | 4.3 (3) | 3.6 (13) |
| Apple Books | — | 4.0 (13) |
Reception
| Poems | Tender Buttons | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 3 | 7349 |
| Editions | 107 | 365 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 10131 |
| Written reviews | — | 823 |
| Wikipedia attention | 19870 | 1143 |
| Pages | 510 | 51 |
Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: Poems or Tender Buttons?
Poems has the higher combined reader rating across sources (Poems 3.8/5, Tender Buttons 3.6/5).
Which is shorter to read: Poems or Tender Buttons?
Tender Buttons is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: Tender Buttons (51 pages, ≈ 57 min); Poems (510 pages, ≈ 9 h 27 m).
Which is harder to read: Poems or Tender Buttons?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — Poems: Demanding; Tender Buttons: Challenging.