Shōgun vs The Pillars of the Earth: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Historical Fiction, History, Fiction
Shōgun
“Blackthorne was suddenly awake.”
After Englishman John Blackthorne is lost at sea, he awakens in a place few Europeans know of and even fewer have seen--Nippon. Thrust into the closed society that is seventeenth-century Japan, a land where the line…
1 film adaptation
vs
The Pillars of the Earth
“IN A BROAD VALLEY, at the foot of a sloping hillside, beside a clear bubbling stream, Tom was building a house.”
The Pillars of the Earth is a historical novel by Welsh author Ken Follett published in 1989 about the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge, England. Set in the 12th century, the novel covers the…
1 film adaptation
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- The Pillars of the Earth has the widest readership — 855879 ratings behind its score.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Shōgun | The Pillars of the Earth | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 4.4 (220200) | 4.3 (855879) |
| Hardcover | 4.3 (507) | 4.2 (1034) |
| Apple Books | — | 4.5 (3249) |
Reception
| Shōgun | The Pillars of the Earth | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 220200 | 855879 |
| Editions | 23 | 111 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 246809 | 598767 |
| Reading it now | 21848 | 39803 |
| Written reviews | 9290 | 43843 |
| Wikipedia attention | 20632 | 28093 |
| Pages | 1129 | 1040 |