Which one I better?

Pinocchio.

If Barth's was better it would have made me read it

geez, hard to say, both masterpieces for whatever that's worth.

i'm leaning slightly in the direction of m&d just because I adore pynchon and prefer his brand of humor to barth's...

i will say though, between the two is not so good a comparison as it may seem. while M&D is decidedly ABOUT america, the sot-weed factor is almost only set in america by coincidence. i would say sot-weed is much more a book about the poet, the figure of ebeneezer cooke in specifc, and a parody of the early american novel, not a parody of early america.