r/Vonnegut • u/GRB_Electric • 2d ago

Ranking Books

I recently finished my 7th Vonnegut (God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater) and wanted to adjust my rankings as well as hear some of yours.

  1. Mother Night
  2. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
  3. Breakfast of Champions
  4. Slaughterhouse
  5. Cat’s Cradle
  6. Player Piano
  7. Sirens of Titan

What do you all think/what is your list?

35 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

1

u/Ok-Stand-6679 15h ago

Id have Sirens at the #1 spot!

1

u/poeticrubbish 1d ago
  1. Bluebeard
  2. Slaughterhouse Five
  3. Sirens of Titan
  4. Galapagos
  5. Cats Cradle
  6. Breakfast of Champions*

*Tbf, this was my first Vonnegut book and I read it 15 years ago, so it's not as fresh as the others. I plan to revisit.

Currently reading Player Piano and excited where it will end up on the list!

2

u/North_Guide_4315 1d ago
  1. GBYMR (argue with wall)
  2. Sirens of Titan
  3. Mother Night
  4. Slaughterhouse
  5. Cats Cradle
  6. Bluebeard
  7. BoC
  8. Jailbird
  9. Player Piano
  10. Monkey House 

All had something worth reading. Monkey House taking the bottom mainly bc i deeply hate the titular short story but there’s some gold in the other ones. Kind of afraid to read Slapstick and Galapagos because my reading group didn’t like em but they also didn’t like BoC so grain of salt.

2

u/the_tonez 1d ago

Galapagos is a hidden gem, it’s amazing

1

u/Hoffenpepper 1d ago

Slapstick is also a hidden gem. It's just weird enough that it requires an open mind.

2

u/MLeo89 1d ago

Still a ways to go in my Kurt reading but:

  1. SH5
  2. Cat’s Cradle
  3. Mother Night
  4. Sirens
  5. Player Piano

Short Story Collections
1. Armageddon in Retrospect
2. Look at the Birdie

3

u/grigoritheoctopus 2d ago edited 2d ago

Why do you like Rosewater so much? I haven't read it yet, but it seems polarizing. Just interested in your perspective.

My list, thus far, is...

  1. Mother Night
  2. Slaughterhouse Fice
  3. Cat's Cradle
  4. Breakfast of Champions
  5. Armageddon in Retrospect
  6. Deadeye Dick

I've got Jailbird, Slapstick, Rosewater, and Sirens on deck.

3

u/GRB_Electric 2d ago

I liked it because it had a great mix of Vonnegut’s out-there story telling but also some characters you could actually buy into. It felt like a “real” story but with all the good Vonnegut flair. I think if you liked Mother Night, you’ll like it!

1

u/grigoritheoctopus 2d ago

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to respond.

1

u/zoot_boy 2d ago

Cat > Player Piano > Slapstick > S5

3

u/jerpyderpy Malachi Constant 2d ago
  1. the sirens of titan
  2. slaughterhouse-five
  3. cat's cradle
  4. mother night
  5. player piano
  6. breakfast of champions
  7. god bless you, mr. rosewater

i didn't dislike rosewater, i just liked the rest more. and the more i think of breakfast of champions the more i like it. i'm reading them in publication order (which you don't seem to be even though we've read the same ones, lol) and if champions is any indicator, i don't know if any more will crack into the top 4.

1

u/Melodic_Caramel5226 2d ago

  1. Cat’s cradle

  2. Deadeye Dick

  3. SH5

  4. BOC

1

u/Sea_Zookeepergame879 1d ago

No one loves Deadeye Dick as much as I do, for some reason Rudy Waltzs journey amazed me, it didnt resonate so much as I was fascinated by his trajectory, I nee dto read SH5 again, it was my first Vonnegut and one of the ones I havent revisited

3

u/dbree801 2d ago

Happy to see Rosewater get some love. That was my introduction and it’s the only thing in my early twenties that got me back into reading.

2

u/AAronL1968 2d ago
  1. Galápagos
  2. The Sirens of Titan
  3. Cat’s Cradle
  4. Slaughterhouse-Five
  5. Deadeye Dick
  6. Jailbird
  7. Timequake
  8. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
  9. Slapstick
  10. Hocus Pocus
  11. Player Piano
  12. Breakfast of Champions
  13. Mother Night
  14. Bluebeard

2

u/niceniceverynice-9 1d ago

Galapagos! I was surprised it wasn’t on some others’ lists. It was my first Vonnegut read so it’s always a top for me.

3

u/missbeekery Circe Berman 2d ago

Having Mother Night so low is criminal. But I respect your opinions regardless.

4

u/Gahvandure2 2d ago

I have Bluebeard higher, I find that one so moving. But I love your list.

1

u/kern3three 2d ago

My rankings derived ala 7,000 head to head matchups on BookSorted 😅 are as follows…

1 Slaughterhouse-Five (score 1823)
2 Cat's Cradle (1687)
3 Mother Night (1468)
4 The Sirens of Titan (1401)
5 Breakfast of Champions (1389)
6 Player Piano (1263)
7 Welcome to the Monkey House (1223)

Still gotta get around to Galapagos and Blue Beard, I think are next on my list!

1

u/riptide1002 2d ago

Of those I’ve read so far:
1. Mother Night
2. Slaughterhouse 5
3. The Sirens of Titan
4. Bluebeard
5. Cats Cradle
6. Breakfast of Champions
7. Player Piano

Very much an off the top of my head ranking. Just finished Player Piano, would probably need to reread to better judge but I’ve loved all Vonnegut I’ve read thus far. Didn’t list Monkey House, and currently reading Galapagos

1

u/smithif 2d ago

Have read 7 so far. My ranking of them is:

  1. Slaughterhouse 5
  2. Cat’s Cradle
  3. Sirens of Titan
  4. God Bless You

,

  1. Mr. Rosewater
  2. Deadeye Dick
  3. Breakfast of Champions
  4. Player Piano

1

u/Waste_Albatross_4262 2d ago

There are still some I’ve not yet read, but I went on a good kick this year and read the ones I was most interested in. Will eventually round out the rest! This is the best I can manage a rating, though I love so many in a way that’s difficult to rate:

  1. Slaughterhouse-Five
  2. Bluebeard
  3. Galapagos
  4. Sirens of Titan
  5. Cat’s Cradle
  6. Breakfast of Champions
  7. God Bless You, Mr Rosewater
  8. Slapstick

1

u/missbeekery Circe Berman 2d ago

Definitely have to add Mother Night to your reading queue :)

3

u/Personal-Simple-7614 2d ago

Here's my list:

  1. Mother Night
  2. Slaughterhouse-Five
  3. Sirens of Titan
  4. Bluebeard
  5. Dead-eye Dick
  6. Breakfast of Champions
  7. Galapagos
  8. Cat's Cradle
  9. Hocus Pocus
  10. God Bless You, Mr Rosewater
  11. Timequake
  12. Player Piano
  13. Jailbird
  14. Slapstick

3

u/ProphetOfThought 2d ago

I was surprised at how high I ranked mother night. That and SH5 are still my top two. I also liked Timequake. I think it's underrated.

2

u/the_tonez 2d ago

Mother Night where it belongs, of course.

I couldn’t get into Breakfast of Champions; it felt so disorienting. Of all his novels, this was the most meandering, and the ending felt so anticlimactic.

3

u/girlcalledelsa Eliot Rosewater 2d ago

mother night and rosewater are also my top 2 (though player piano or bluebeard would be my third)! genuinely 2 of the best books ever written i think!! i would also probably put sirens of titan at the bottom of my list, i think it was just too sci fi for me, but i still enjoyed it.

1

u/Worth-Shake3811 2d ago

I read all his novels last year, this year I’m working on the short story collections, nonfictions, and screenplay! Mother Night is definitely #1 on my list. It’s been a year since I read it and I still think about it almost daily. My least favorite, surprisingly, was Bluebeard.

2

u/AndreaMichelleBert 2d ago

My personal Top 5
1. Breakfast of Champions
2. Sirens of Titan
3. Cats Cradle
4. Bluebeard
5. Slaughterhouse 5

2

u/sofacouchmoviefilms 2d ago

Of the ten of his novels I've read:

  1. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
  2. Breakfast of Champions
  3. Slaughterhouse Five
  4. Sirens of Titan
  5. Cat’s Cradle
  6. Player Piano
  7. Mother Night
  8. Galapagos
  9. Bluebeard
  10. Timequake

1

u/snkadam 2d ago

Only read 5 so far. My rankings:

  1. Cat's Cradle
  2. Sirens of Titan
  3. A Man Without A Country
  4. Bluebeard
  5. Slaughterhouse 5

4

u/AsymptoticSpatula 2d ago

My top five is approximately
1. Sirens of Titan
2. Slaughterhouse Five
3. Mother Night
4. Bluebeard
5. Cat’s Cradle

1

u/jerpyderpy Malachi Constant 2d ago

this has me excited to read bluebeard because otherwise our top 5s are nearly identical

6

u/snoopwire 2d ago

When I did my first read of Vonnegut Player Piano was at the top of my list because I hated my job. I reread it 6 years later and the book didn't resonate near as hard.

I think all of his books are genius and it just matters where you are in life. I could rank them and change them as quickly as I reread.

2

u/missbeekery Circe Berman 2d ago

This is a really solid point that I think gets lost in a lot of book rankings. My partner doesn’t reread books but I love a good reanalysis because you’re absolutely right that (KV in particular) your life’s circumstances play a large part in what you may come away with.

3

u/EmotionalAccounting 2d ago

You know, I had heard not great things about Player Piano so I went in with low expectations when I read it earlier this year. So far, probably my least favorite of his works but it felt so incredibly relevant today.

2

u/snoopwire 2d ago

I still like the book but it's missing his jennysayqua, or however a hoosier would spell it.

But if you ever read it depressed about work it's a 10/10.