About a Boy vs The Last Samurai: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Single mothers, London, Fiction
About a Boy
Nick Hornby's second bestselling novel is about sex, manliness and fatherhood. Will is thirty-six, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women - through single-parent groups.…
1 film adaptation
vs
The Last Samurai
"Ludo, age six, is a prodigy. His mother, Sibylla, raises him alone and tries hard to keep his voracious intellect satisfied, while she struggles to make ends meet. With her exasperated guidance, he teaches himself…
The verdict
- Readers rate The Last Samurai highest: The Last Samurai 4.3 · About a Boy 3.8.
- About a Boy is the quickest read — about 6 hours vs 9 for The Last Samurai.
- About a Boy has the widest readership — 142843 ratings behind its score.
How to choose
Scores by source
| About a Boy | The Last Samurai | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.8 (142843) | — |
| Hardcover | 3.7 (180) | 4.4 (56) |
| Google Books | 5.0 (1) | 5.0 (3) |
| Apple Books | 4.0 (124) | 4.5 (49) |
Reception
| About a Boy | The Last Samurai | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 142843 | 56 |
| Editions | 61 | 18 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 46491 | — |
| Written reviews | 4535 | — |
| Wikipedia attention | 2513 | 3435 |
| Pages | 328 | 530 |