#Classic Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
- Author: Ayn Rand (1905 – 1982)
- Title: Atlas Shrugged (1168 pg)
- Genre: fiction
- Published: 1957
- List of Challenges 2020
- Monthly plan
Conclusion:
- You either LOVE the book or you HATE it.
- I can’t state it more simply.
- This is crystalline capitalistic philosophy spun in the
- warm cocoon of a novel to make it more digestible.
- I continued to soldier on being pummeled by waves and waves
- of soap opera stuff, profound statements and superfluous details.
- I read with my cat in front of the fireplace
- …and keep falling asleep!
- The cat slept as well.
Last thoughts:
- Sorry I have to agree with one of my GF Friends ‘Bridget’
- and give this book a score of 1!
- I read Atlas Shrugged to understand
- why a friend of mine liked it so much.
- Bad News: I did not like Atlas Shrugged
- Good News: We are still friends!
- The book is 350 pages too long.
- It is unnecessarily padded with character sketches
- of some of the politicians, engineers, scientists and activists involved.
- A swirl of useless descriptions and
- facts makes this book….unbearable.
- #ReadAtYourOwnRisk
- …I wasted many reading hours.
-
Chapters are too cynical, too sour, too claustrophobic.
- #Bah
- Worst book I’ve read in a very long time!
- Who wants to hang out with these awful people?
10 Comments
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NancyElin 
I’ve been noticing on Twitter that you’ve been reading this and I wondered what you’d think…
I haven’t read it, but I read The Fountainhead years ago for a similar reason: a couple of friends thought it was great. (There’s a lot of libertarian/free-market fundamentalism in the computer biz.) The philosophy is what it is, not particularly for me. What shocked me was how badly written it was, how much the characters were all clichés, how terrible it was just as a novel.
Good to know I can continue to ignore Atlas Shrugged!
Though the illustration you have at the top is pretty cool.
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Reese, I can read a philosophy (‘Randism’ = think only about your own well being, less empathy for the ‘losers’) and even see it played out in fin crisis 2008. Big banks in Ayn Rand’s world should have just failed…make bad investments…pay the price. But the people (losers) who created the crisis were also in charge of policy. They turned to the ‘nanny state’….b/c they were too big to fail. Examples like these are enlightening after you read her objectivism. My biggest concern was the writing….it was awful. That is what a book depends on…not only a theme. Not reading Ayn Rand any tiime soon!
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I have Atlas Shrugged on my list but I think, based on your review, that I might delay reading it forever, lol! I had a feeling it might be like you described. Better luck for your next classic!
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Sometimes it is wise to read reviews before embarking on 1068 page book! 🙂
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I read The fountainhead a couple of decades ago, and was glad I did, but have not wanted to rad anymore. I can understand your cat doing to sleep.
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For cat and myself major ZZZZZzzzzzz
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I read both ‘Atlas Shrugged’ and ‘The Fountainhead’about 40 years ago. Some aspects appealed to my idealistic younger self, but the prose is dreadful.
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I agree…prose is dreadful.
Rand is employing unnecessarily florid language and galloping sentence construction to obscure a perfectly good point.
Just state the point in 3r grade prose…and stop there!
Book would have been 300-400 pages shorter!
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I read the fountainhead a couple of decades ago because it was referenced in Dirty Dancing! I was underwhelmed. Do bravo for trying. The things we do for friends 😊
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I’m going to concentrate more on politics for a few months
….an American Presidential Election comes only every four years
…and this might be one of the most important!
Sometimes I envision Trump taking a page out of Putin’s playbook…and
dissolving the government and placing himself undisputed ruler in US for life!
Be afraid, be very afraid in these Orwellian times…..
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