Every Kurt Vonnegut Novel RANKED
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- In this video I rank every novel from my favourite author, Kurt Vonnegut. I place all the books in a tier ranking from best to worst, and let you know the premise, some of the themes, and why I enjoyed them. What's your ranking?
I also compare my ratings to Vonneguts grades that he gave himself, and his average ratings on Goodreads. On top of that I share a deluxe edition of Cat's Cradle from the Folio Society as well as a signed, limited edition of Deadeye Dick from Delacorte Press.
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00:00 - Introduction
00:37 - Player Piano
01:39 - The Sirens of Titan
02:30 - Mother Night
03:19 - Cat's Cradle
04:50 - God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
05:36 - Slaughterhouse-Five
06:39 - Breakfast of Champions
07:48 - Slapstick
08:50 - Jailbird
09:36 - Deadeye Dick
11:47 - Galapagos
12:42 - Bluebeard
13:30 - Hocus Pocus
14:22 - Timequake
15:15 - Final Rankings
16:44 - Patron Pick of the Month
#Books #Ranking #TierList
Thanks for the overview! I do want to read more Vonnegut and this is very helpful.
Cheers Josh! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
@@WordsinTime you also gave me the idea of shooting with the green screen the next time I do a tier list. This was so much more interesting visually!
@@RedFuryBooks Haha awesome, glad you liked it!
Amazing video. Great concept and effort to rank an author's complete works. Gotta read more Vonnegut for sure!
I appreciate it Cristian! I hope you enjoy them!
This was really good Jonathan! I had no idea he’d rated his own books lol. Cats Cradle and Slaughterhouse 5 are both on my list of books I must read.
Haha yeah it’s kind of funny that he did that. I hope you enjoy them!
Thus was fantastic! Makes me excited to read some more Vonnegut!
That makes me happy to hear! This was a special video for me, so I’m glad if it inspires people to read more Vonnegut!
I was looking for a video just like this- you did a very nice job. Thank you
You’re welcome! I’m glad it was helpful!
I have yet to read The Sirens of Titans (among many others). I’ll likely fix that omission later this year.
Great video, and I love how you used the ranking as green screen backdrop. 👏
Thanks Bart! I hope you enjoy The Sirens of Titan!
I have read every Vonnegut novel except Deadeye Dick. My top three are Slaughterhouse Five , Cat’s Cradle, and Mother Night. Least favorite Slapstick. I have a sentimental favorite of Jailbird because it was the first Vonnegut novel I read in the 80s and I still remember the ditty with the clapping.
It looks like we have some similar picks. I hope you like Deadeye Dick!
I still remember that too! Sally in the garden….
Would you consider uploading a beginner’s guide to reading Kurt Vonnegut? Maybe separating by sub-genre or tone, and what a reader might want to get out of his novels?
If there’s enough interest I might. To start I’d recommend The Sirens of Titan for adventurous sci-fi, Slaughterhouse-Five for darkly humorous sci-fi, Cat’s Cradle if you want absurd comedy, and Mother Night if you want something heavy and less sci-fi.
Nice one! Love me some Vonnegut.
I’m glad you love him too Wally!
I have only read Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse and loved both of them, especially Cat's. Your video makes me want to pick up a couple more. Thanks.
That’s great to hear Carlos! I hope you enjoy them!
Hi Jonathan. Thanks for this Vonnegut overview. So far I've only read ...Mr. Rosewater. My rating was in line with your experience. I look forward to reading more Vonnegut in the coming days.
You’re welcome Curt! I hope you enjoy whatever you try next!
I need to read Vonnegut finally. I already have Slaughterhouse 5, Cat's Cradle and Sirens of Titan. Cool that they are all A+ in your ranking.
Those three are a good place to start!
My top 3 would be Sirens of Titan, Cats Cradle and Player Piano although I haven't read them all. I find myself recommending Player Piano a lot recently. More relevant than ever.
Great video :)
Awesome! I’m glad you also enjoyed Player Piano!
Loved this! My Vonnegut phase was during and right after college, but looks like I left some of the essential reads out!
I might go:
S: Cat’s Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five
A: Breakfast of Champions, Bluebeard
B: Player Piano, Welcome to the Monkeyhouse, Galapagos
I really need to try out Deadeye Dick, Sirens of Titan, and Mother Night!
That’s awesome! I hope you like them!
I've never really made it a point to read any Vonnegut, but this video has convinced that maybe I should add at least your Top 5 to my loose TBR interest list to get to Someday(TM).
I think he’s a genius. I hope you enjoy them (someday)!
Special (second order) Mention: PJF's "Venus on the Half-Shell" as inspiration for Hitchhiker's.
I’ve heard of it but haven’t read it. Glad you liked it!
My favorite for a long time was Breakfast of Champions. Now it is whichever book I'm reading.
There was a large gap from the time I read some of the books until I reread them. It's very interesting how they affected me differently the second time around.
@@davebegley3022 I’m looking forward to re-reading some of these!
The Sirens of Titan is one of the few books that has left me in tears at the end.
It made me tear up too!
Still yet to read any Vonnegut, but I do own Cat's Cradle, Slaughter House Five, Siren of Titan and Galapagos. I think I'll start with Cat's Cradle.
That’s great! I hope you enjoy!
Vonnegut is amazing. We read Mother Night when I was in high school and I’ve been a fan ever since. Great list!
That’s awesome Paul, I’m glad you connected with him too!
I knew you liked vonnegut but didn't know he's actually your favorite writer. The first book I read by him was slaughter house five back in 1969 I think and it's still my fave of all the books by him I've read. The titans of siren is a close second. Your review makes me want to read some of his earlier stuff I've not yet read like cat's cradle which I've heard so much about. Vonnegut's take on the absurdity of it all mirrors my own and along with his humor is one of the reasons I like him.⚛😀
That’s great! I hope you like some of his other books too!
This is most helpful 👍
That’s great to hear! You’re welcome!
My favorites are very similar to yours. Deadeye Dick & Slaughterhouse Five would swap places... I like Breakfast of Champions more than you & I'm not as quite as high on Hocus Pocus ... but otherwise pretty much the same.
I mentioned that Deadeye Dick was the standout in your classic SF book haul comments - glad you liked it!
I really think Player Piano deserves to be mentioned along the dystopian greats 'Brave New World', '1984', & 'Fahrenheit 451'.
"Welcome to the Monkey House' is a great short story collection.
Thanks for this video, Jonathan!
That’s awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed Deadeye Dick too!
I read Slaughterhouse 5 a couple of years after it came out, then read it at least 3 more times after that. Then came Sirens of Titan, which I also re-read often. I became a Vonnegut freak, buying all of the books as they came out in paperback in the UK. Later, I even started a Ph.D. comparing Vonnegut with the British writer Anthony Burgess (my UK university insisted I include an English author as I was working in the English department ...). Later still, I had the opportunity to teach Cat's Cradle to undergraduates and try to infuse some of my enthusiasm into them! I largely agree with your ranking, though I'd probably put Deadeye Dick lower, perhaps B or C, and raise both Breakfast of Champions (to B) and God Bless You, Mr Rosewater (to A). Mother Night has always been a critical favourite, and the story is loosely based on the British war time traitor William Joyce, nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, who broadcast to the UK from Germany during WWII. If you have the time, I recommend reading the volume of Vonnegut's letters. They start when he was young and his writing voice is there almost from the beginning, at least from his early 20s. He was very conversational in style even then. What a shame there'll be no more Vonneguts to read, eh? :( (There was a slim paperback of one of his plays, Happy Birthday, Wanda June, and I think a film was made of it, too. )
That’s awesome that you got write about and teach on Vonnegut! I have read some of his other works, but I will make my way through the rest slowly as I will be sad when I finish it all!
Very interesting. I've read a lot (though not all) of Vonnegut over the years, but it's hard for me to rank them because I read them at such different times in my life. I mostly agree with your rankings (including putting Cat's Cradle at the top-I'm due for a reread of that one), but I would have put Player Piano lower (it's been a long time, but if memory serves, I thought it didn't have enough that was distinctly Vonnegut about it, and didn't do much that other books didn't do better) and Timequake higher (it maybe doesn't work that well strictly as a novel, but it has plenty of Vonnegutty goodness).
Those are fair assessments!
Besides Timequake, which I read about 20 years ago, I haven't read a Vonnegut book in about 30 years ago! Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, and Mother Night, I always considered my favorites. Loved Galapagos and Sirens of Titan as well.
Those are all great!
Amazing video! 👏🏼🇧🇷
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I read Cat's Cradle and absolutely loved it. Then I read Sirens of Titan, and it just fell flat for me. I don't even no why now, so I'm going to read it again, because obviously I missed something! And then I think I'll delve into more Vonnegut as well.
I think his authorial voice comes through in all of his books, but some have slightly different style so you may enjoy some more than others, but I liked pretty much all of them haha
The best thing about Cats Cradle is it inspired Joe Satriani to Ice-9😮
Nice! 🧊
Oh boy. Just finished a book. Guess who's about to read every Vonnegut book.
@@JazzDino Haha welcome to the club!
My first KV read was Mothernight and it lead me to read all of his books. For me, Mothernight was the most memorable.
@@user-pg3pe4gx4p One of my favourites!
When I frist read Cat's Cradle, I lived in a town called Bolivar with an old hirtorical site outside of town called Fort Lawrence (a very short step to San Lorenzo. Ice9 was also the Grateful Dead's music publishing company. I will alswys remember the 14th chapter of the Book of Bokonon. And the Lyman Boyd Johnso--LBJ) was pure magic I think this one is my favorite.
That’s awesome! I’m glad you loved it too!
Ive read maybe half of these but pre 2000's so my appetite is whetted to reread and read for the first time. One question, you said that KIlgore Trout is a Vonnegit alternate character but theres also a (very funny) book "by" ahem "Kilgore Trout" called Venus on the Half Shell which is actually by Philip Jose Farmer. Do you know anything about how that works? Of the ones Ive read, Slaughterhouse 5 is the one that stands out, possibly helped by a film which AFAICR is very true to the book.
Kilgore Trout was created by Vonnegut and is his alter ego. Philip Jose Farmer asked Vonnegut for permission to write a book under the pseudonym of Kilgore Trout and Vonnegut agreed. Apparently some readers found it confusing so later editions put Farmer’s name on the cover in order to clarify.
I’ve never read any Vonnegut, but am eager to do so. Which book would you recommend for my first one?
I think The Sirens of Titan is a good place to start!
@@WordsinTime Thanks Jonathan for the recommendation! "The Sirens of Titan" purchased and it is currently 3rd on my TBR (behind Roadside Picnic and Blindsight) 📚
@@TokraRoch Those are all great and quite different!
Really love me some Vonnegut, he’s one of the most underrated GOAT’s. Don’t sleep on his short stories either, they’re fantastic!
I’m glad you love him too! And yes, I have Welcome to the Monkey House and it’s great!
Some awesome shorter works as well. Welcome to the Monkeyhouse has to be 1 of my favorite collections.
Yes! I didn’t include short stories, essays, and plays just because I wanted to compare apples to apples and didn’t want the video to be too long. But Welcome to the Monkey House is great!
I don't think I've read Vonnegut since I was a teenager in the 60s, its about time I got back to him as there are so many later books. However, because of you (and MDC, and two guys each named Jack and a few others) I've picked up on Ruocchio's Suneater, currently in book 2. Vonnegut will have to wait a while longer.
Both worthy pursuits! Hope you enjoy!
@@WordsinTime My multiple personality disorder must have kicked in a while ago. I just looked through the list of ebooks I've got recently. I got Sirens of Titan early in March - even before Suneater 2. I need more rainy days to get through everything that's waiting for me.
Listen! Ranking my all time fav author is difficult. Outside 'Player Piano' which I would rate a B (like Kurt himself), I'd argue the rest are between A+ and A;
Breakfast of Champions
Slaughterhouse 5
Sirens of Titan
God Bless you, Mr Rosewater
Cats Cradle
Mother Night
Deadeye dick
Slapstick
Bluebeard
Timequake
Jailbird
Galapagos
Hocus Pocus
Player Piano
So it goes...
I’m glad you love Vonnegut too!
Let’s go!!!!
🫡
Hearing “and now a word from our sponsor “….. me: ohh god…
Hearing the word from your sponsor… me: OH GOD!
Hahaha
I did a research paper in high school about Vonnegut.
That’s awesome!
I haven't yet read any, embarrasing. I was going to start with one of the popular ones, but after watching this, "Galápagos" really caught my eye. Thank you and Bananas 🍌 for the summary.
I’m glad the video was helpful, I hope you enjoy Galapagos! 🍌
شكرا جزيلا ❤❤❤
❤️
You forgot hs play, "Happy Birthday Wanda June."
@@miblish5168 This list is just his novels. But he has some other great works too.
If i made this video it would be very short. I condemn all of them to the bottomest of bottom tiers, all on the basis of having read and HATED sirens of titan. 😀 I'll watch this properly later, see what I'm "missing out on"! Different strokes and all that...
Oh no haha
I can't imagine hating Sirens of Titan, but please try another. Cat's Cradle, Timequake, or Galapagos might be more up your alley.
@@jshowers01 i recognise it's a minority opinion!
@@SciFiScavenger I get it. I tried to recommend the most science fiction adjacent books I could lol
The wine was dead. So it goes.
❤️
Once again you read my mind, Stop it! 😷😷😷
Haha we’re on the same wavelength!
So, you're sponsor shill after all, Jonathon. Everyone here in Australia now knows that you've sold out to Big Banana. Thanks Coffs Harbour for infiltrating another independent booktuber.
And nobody outside of Oz will know what I'm talking about. 😀
Big Banana has deep pockets!
(I’ve actually seen the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour as a kid haha)
Have a banana courtesy of our Banana Robot Overlords. 🍌🤖