Breakfast of Champions
or, Goodbye blue Monday!
by Kurt Vonnegut, María Medem, Irma Triginé, Daniel Martí i Colom · first published 1973
47% recommend49% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Outrageously funny yet sad Vonnegut satire with the author inserting himself as a character; it leaves readers thinking afterward and suits newcomers to Vonnegut as well as longtime fans.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Breakfast Of Champions is vintage Vonnegut. One of his favorite characters, aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. The result is murderously funny satire as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2009–2026The Sirens of Titan
Kurt Vonnegut, William Teason, Richard M. Powers
Recommended by 40 · mentioned by 6140 recommend · 61 mention40 recommend · 6140 recommend
2012–2026Mother Night
Kurt Vonnegut, Victor Bevine, Avirama Golan
Recommended by 23 · mentioned by 4323 recommend · 43 mention23 recommend · 4323 recommend
2012–2025God bless you, Mr. Rosewater
Kurt Vonnegut, Gwilym Tonnerre, Eric Michael Summerer
Recommended by 5 · mentioned by 135 recommend · 13 mention5 recommend · 135 recommend
2012–2022Happy birthday, Wanda June
Kurt Vonnegut
0 recommend · 2 mentioned0 recommend · 2 mention0 recommend · 20 recommend
2015–2023Deadeye Dick
Kurt Vonnegut
Recommended by 4 · mentioned by 64 recommend · 6 mention4 recommend · 64 recommend
2010–2022How we know what isn't so
Thomas Gilovich
Recommended by 3 · mentioned by 43 recommend · 4 mention3 recommend · 43 recommend
2007–2026Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut
Recommended by 58 · mentioned by 13558 recommend · 135 mention58 recommend · 13558 recommend
2011–2026Timequake
Kurt Vonnegut, Lawrence Pressman, Eli Schreiber
Recommended by 7 · mentioned by 167 recommend · 16 mention7 recommend · 167 recommend
…Some trivia: I always thought Tom Waits was clever to come up with the line "In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is King" but that came from Vonnegut in "Player "Piano. I especially appreciated "Breakfast of Champions" because he inserted himself into the book as a character and stated that writing the book prevented him from killing himself like his mother. It helped me not kill myself as well.
on “Kurt Vonnegut Museum Opens in Indianapolis” ↗Meanwhile, the world outside of the Vonnegut Museum is performing an homage to him by attempting to recreate Harrison Bergeron. I became a Vonnegut fan at age 12 when I tried to check out Breakfast of Champions from the local library, and they sent me home with a permission slip for my mom to sign instead. So of course I had to read all of his books. Then had to reread them a few years later to understand them.…
on “Kurt Vonnegut Museum Opens in Indianapolis” ↗Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut. I've read a ton of books in my life, but for some reason never took the plunge into Vonnegut. I was utterly awe struck by this book. I think every person has a small list of things that…
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why” ↗…that, although Douglas Adams made famous a character he created called Marvin the depressed robot. I think depression in a person is a good test of sentience. You might be interested in Kurt Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions" (not the movie with Bruce Willis, which is an abomination) in which he feels everyone but himself is a robot and considers killing himself until he meets an artist who restores his faith in the creative…
on “A.I. Is Not Sentient. Why Do People Say It Is?” ↗For the specific term “NPC” maybe, but the idea of “There is a main character and every one else is a machine” goes back much further - Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions (1973) tackles the idea in a particularly humorous way. (Not too much of a spoiler I hope, in classic Vonnegut fashion the bottom line is delivered up front and the rest book is about getting there) Note:…
on “TikTok’s Ugly ‘NPC in Real Life’ Trend” ↗Ulysses by James Joyce Code Complete by Steve McConnell Walden by Henry David Thoreau Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan Murphy by Samuel Beckett Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
on “Articles, Ideas, Books and/or Concepts that have changed your life” ↗If you haven't read a Kurt Vonnegut book, I highly recommend that you do. The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, Breakfast of Champions, and Slaughterhouse 5 are all great places to start.
on “Ask HN: Best non-technical book you've read lately? ” ↗…by Stanislaw Lem. A brilliant collection of short stories on language, philosophy, futurism. Currently: — Nexus, by Ramez Naam (book 1 of 3). Nanobots meet augmented reality, transhumanism. Good. — Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut. Hilarious stuff. — Poe's collected works. Next: — The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu. I have my hopes high.
on “Ask HN: What books are you reading?” ↗Breakfast of Champions if you want to read something outrageously funny and a little bit sad.
on “How To Write With Style (1999)” ↗- A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich - aleksandr solzhenitsyn - Breakfast of champions - Kurt Vonnegut - Plato's the republic - The unfettered mind - Takuan Soho
on “Ask HN: What books have most influenced the way you see the world?” ↗I love that (well, and Breakfast of Champions) so much I could never get into his other novels much, because they're not them. Sirens was the first novel that I really connected with. I've read it so many times. "It flung them like stones." Ha, come…
on “At the Blackboard: Kurt Vonnegut diagrams the shapes of stories (2005)” ↗Fiction, yes. I've recently read and recommend Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (which in a way is a blend of sci fi and fantasy), Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, and Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. On Deck, I have Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.
on “Ask HN: Do you read books regularly? Fiction or nonfiction?” ↗…people machines, and he was right. If you watch yourself you will know how mechanically you behave. http://www.pomyc.org/blog-details/55 The exact quote by Gurdjieff is worth reading. Kurt Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions" dealt with this theme in an extraordinary way. He created a character who was going mad because he felt he was living among robots. At last, his character finds an artist that had a "light" in him, a…
on “Why do older individuals have greater control of their feelings?” ↗Kurt Vonnegut "Breakfast of Champions": A yearly reminder that despite the terrible cruelty of human society and the awful behavior of many people and the indifference of most others, there are good people who shine love and creativity and…
on “Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?” ↗Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut. Like others could change any day you ask. Social commentary is probably at the top followed by well researched recent historical works.
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗