Am I the only one who has never read Ayn Rand?

[LynneSin]

And I've read alot of books in my lifetime, many of the classics. But just never read that one and now really have no desire to read it.

Am I missing something?

[Paladin]

1. Spare Yourself.

Don't spend a single moment on Rand's idiotic vision of a world sorely in need of more selfishness and money worship. Real bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. Oh yeah---she can't write worth a shit, either.......

[taterguy]

2. There's what, 10 billion people or so on the planet?

I suspect there's at least one or two.

I've never read her either.

[RiffRandell]

3. Never read, don't want to. n/t

[Bucky]

4. I read one of her books in high school, back before I realized I was supposed to hate her books.

By the time I found out her philosophy was "don't let none of them squirt punks hold you back" I was already resigned to being one of the squirt punks in life. So I guess, I'm unread in the ways of Ayn Rand, but only because I'm an illiterate slob.

[arbusto_baboso]

5. The only thing her books would teach you....

is that literally any asshole can get published if they have the right connections, and cults often spring up around totally uninspiring and uninspired individuals.

[RainDog]

6. I read her when I was a senior in h.s.

and took her books with me to Russia (the USSR then) when I went there as a student. left them in my room for freedom of speech.

the people there probably used the pulp paper for toilet paper. the stuff they had back then gave me a paper cut.

Now I always associate her with paper cuts from copy-sheet thick toilet paper.

[Richardo]

7. I tried reading 'Atlas' a number of years ago and it was a hard slog.

I gave up after about 30 pages. Life is too short.

[astral]

41. me too.

Who is John Galt? If that was all that I was trying to stay awake to find out, fergeddyboudit!

That is the only darned thing I can remember about the book, and I still don't know who John Galt is. I suppose my life would be different now if I had ploughed on . . . . .

[Wapsie B]

66. That's about how far I got into it before putting it down.

Dear god, who thought that woman knew how to write?

[caitxrawks]

8. i didn't even know who they were until recently.

Everyone was talking about Libertarians and Ayn Rand and I was like "Whaaaa?"

I'm young though, so maybe it's just me.

[Kaleva]

9. Who is Ayn Rand?

[Liberal Veteran]

27. I think she wrote the Vampire Chronicles.

Or she was a vampire.

Something like that, right?

[Kaleva]

35. Haven't read those books or know anything about them.

Knew Ayn Rand was an author but didn't know what she wrote or much cared to find out either.

[mcctatas]

10. I had a philosophy professor who was also a masochist..

I had to read 'Atlas Shrugged' AND 'The Fountainhead' in one semester :puke:

[Call Me Wesley]

12. Philosophy teacher fail.

How can she be teachable material?

[mcctatas]

14. it was an odd course...

we also had to watch "Sophie's Choice" and write a paper about what we would have done in that situation, theoretical for most of the students but I had 3 spawn at the time, totally heartwrenching and traumatic. Instead of 'Philosophy in the Arts' it should have been called 'I am an evil bastard who wants to depress my students because I can'

[Kutjara]

31. Oops. Wrong place. n/t

[Call Me Wesley]

11. I never read anything of her.

In fact, I only heard of her through DU, then googled. I'm picky with my books. She won't have any shelf life on here. ;)

[Iggo]

13. I tried reading her stuff when I was a teenager.

The cool kids recommended it and I really wanted to be cool.

But I like SF&F and her shit was sooooooo fucking booooooooooring!

[Touchdown]

15. Nope.. I'm another.

And judging by what others say about her... I will probably die a happy man if I don't ever read her.

In regards to judging books by their covers... I don't need to shave my ass and sit in a bowl of gin to know it's painful.

[lunatica]

16. I never finished the book. I thought there was something wrong with me

that I hated the characters because they were emotionally cold and I found them unbelievable, and didn't like any of them. If you can't either like or hate the characters then you can't get either intellectually or emotionally involved.

I've put down some 'classics' for the same reason. I hate Thomas Hardy, for example. He damn near made me turn against the so-called classics. I think I actually threw the book across the room.

[abbeyco]

17. Nope...I've never had the desire to read her.

I didn't understand the fascination when I was younger and I still don't get it today.

Guess I'm big-time out of the loop.

[MrScorpio]

18. I never read it

It seemed too fucking obtuse.

[calico1]

19. No, you are not the only one.

I also read a lot and have never read any of her works.

[trof]

20. Well, you should have read her books in college.

That's when we were all 'gee whiz, what if?'
And we were into lots of sci-fi then too.

Later in life, after you've possibly gained a modicum of maturity?
Nah.
She was a wingnut.

[baldguy]

21. There are too many other Mary Sue-ish novels out there that are more realistic.

[KG]

22. an older lady i was dating as a young man had a list of book she felt i should read.

AS was on that list. i gave up after about 150 pages.

i also couldn't finish 'Siddartha'.

[laylah]

23. As the grand-daughter of a

librarian, I had heard about this book all of my life; however, from a young age, I knew it was nothing I had any interest in. There were too many more uplifting and "kind" books to read. Of course, being "brung up" in a totally Democratic/Union loving environment, I am not surprised.

[Forkboy]

24. Nope....never even come close. Does it have zombies in it?

I didn't think so. ;)

[HughBeaumont]

25. Not a DAMN thing.

Rand should have died in Vanity Press hell. Instead, she's worshipped by men who play Army dress-up, economists, college kids with bad haircuts and Republicans who are ashamed to admit they're Republicans. Fitting.

[Z_I_Peevey]

26. I once knew an Ayn Rand fan, and that was enough

to keep me away from the source material. I don't judge a book by its cover, but sometimes I do judge a book by its followers. (Full body shudder.)

[revolution breeze]

62. But knowledge is power.

by reading the material, it gives us more knowledge to fight the right wing talking points. When my MIL the winger shows up with her books, I have responses high-lighted in my copy of the Constitution and Federalist Papers. I am currently readiing the HCR law and hi-lighting sections of the movie Sicko to fight the ignorance.

[Old Troop]

28. We live in the home of Ayn Rand thinking!

If there is any corporate state, it is DE. The corporations used to meet openly before the legislative session to set the agenda. Not much has changed.

[Kat45]

29. Nope. I've never read it.

Hadn't really heard of it before recently. No loss, I'd say.

[Swede]

30. Nope

:shrug:

[Kutjara]

32. She was a great inspiration to me in my teens.

After reading "Anthem" and "Atlas Shrugged," I went on an intense voyage of discovery to find an ideology that was as far removed from that self-serving, mean-spirited, sub-adolescent tripe as I could find. I credit her with beginning my social and political education in much the same way I credit wracking stomach cramps and explosive diarrhea with beginning my education about food allergies.

[dugaresa]

59. that was a great summation!

[Demoiselle]

33. Don't bother. See the movie.

Actually, you could watch The Fountainhead. It's got all the Ayn Rand philosophy anyone could ever stomach (totally absurd) plus Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal.
It's a truly silly and overwrought movie, but great fun to watch with a few friends and a lot of booze/popcorn.

[Duer 157099]

34. I remember reading The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged in high school

And I remember enjoying the books, but not being comfortable with whatever the message was. For the life of me, I can't remember what the books are about. Only seeing the film of The Fountainhead later on when I was an adult, did I recall what it was about.

I wonder how many books I've read in my life that I've forgotten about? :sigh: it seems like such a waste of time

[unpossibles]

36. I read the Fountainhead when I was an architorture student

And liked a couple of elements of it, although I thought it was pretty bad overall. When I read Anthem I realized that she really seemed to believe her own BS, and that it was her philosophy not just the character in The Fountainhead, and lost interest in her.

[CBHagman]

37. You are not alone, LynneSin.

It's not that I'm ruling it out (I remember how people told me it would be dangerous to read Hermann Hesse, and then I did, and suffered no ill effects), but I've got other things I want to do. In fact I've got other things I'd rather do.

[applegrove]

38. I never finished her book. I found it crass. You're not missing anything.

[madmom]

39. NOPE, and no desire to either.

[SeattleGirl]

40. I never have, and really have no desire to do so. n/t

[bluesbassman]

42. I own a copy of Atlas Shrugged.

It's currently keeping the dining room table level. :)

Seriously, my sil the librarian gave it to me and I have absolutely no desire to read it.

[rcrush]

43. I never have either. I might just to see what the fuss is all about.

But I probably wont. I can't concentrate when I try to read a book. Takes forever to get through a chapter for me.

[PhoenixAbove]

44. I've never read Rand either

And judging from the replies to this message, I'm not going to bother wasting my time.

[Dr Morbius]

45. Not only have I read Rand, I would somewhat recommend

both the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

Don't get me wrong, please. Ayn Rand was an idiot. But she's also one of the most misunderstood 20th century American writers.

She's often misclassified as a fantasy novelist, or a science-fiction writer. The truth is that she was a romanticist, and both books are essentially romance novels. Her major characters were always beautiful. Her leading men (Howard Roark, Hank Rearden, John Galt) were physical specimens, men who worked for a living. Dominique Francon, the lead character in The Fountainhead, fell in love with Roark when he raped her.

That speaks volumes about Rand's mental state, doesn't it?

She should be seen as a glorified Harlequin romance writer, really. Her "philosophy" has holes through which I could fly a B-52. These two books are ample proof that some people can convince themselves of anything (I call such people romanticists). But as romance books, page turners as it were, they aren't that bad. Her characters are well-drawn, her dramatic build-ups reasonably effective, and she knew how to create a climax.

Pardon the pun.

Her other stuff, like We the Living and Anthem, are mediocre at best and unreadable at worst. But her two popular novels are popular for a reason; they're pretty well written, if ideologically farcical.

[ProfessorGAC]

46. Don't Bother

Sophomoric, pseudo-intellectual nonsense for people who only think in two dimensions.
GAC

[Brewman_Jax]

47. Haven't read any Ayn Rand, either

though I was planning on reading one of the books to see what the libertarians and teabaggers were so gung-ho about. I may or may not give it a go. :shrug:

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

48. Not missing a thing....

Were it not for her asinine politics, which keeps her popular in the Asinine-American Community, she would have become a literary footnote decades ago.

[meegbear]

49. I never read her either, but she's like a lot of other areas of political thought ...

it may "look good on paper", but if you truly apply it, it sucks.

[struggle4progress]

50. I started once. I got through about two pages and wondered, "Does this dreck ever get better?"

A quick-flip sampling of the text convinced me that the tedious sophomoric writing style permeated the entire volume, so I returned the dreadful thing to the library

[Deep13]

51. No. I would like to say that I've read her crap...

...but there are so amny competing ideas available, I have to filter out the real garbage or else I'd be reading nothing but crap. So, no, I found out what she is all about and lumped her stuff in with Rush Limbaugh and other efforts to make callous selfishness a virtue.

[rurallib]

52. I figured if she couldn't spell her first name right

she probably could not write much better.
Ayn, your name is spelled Ann!

[dawg]

53. 2112 was loosely based on "Anthem"

I bet you already knew that though.

[MiddleFingerMom]

54. Never have either.

.
Instead, I highly recommend reading "Babbitt".
.
Genius, timeless depiction of the capitalist elite -- but even
more so the wanna-be sycophants who think there's a snowball's
chance in Guatemala that they'll be allowed to advance to the
elitist ranks.
.
Still holds so true today.
.
Only book I read for pleasure that I almost IMMEDIATELY re-read
with a highlighter.
.

[joeybee12]

55. It will be a horrible effort, but you should read her "novels"..it's always good to get

an idea how insane people "think."

[cemaphonic]

56. Read "Sewer, Gas & Electric" instead

It's an entertaining send-up of Randian themes which reads like Illuminatus, only written by a more sober and saner author.

One of the characters is actually a holographic simulacrum of Rand that is completely dependent on a pack of liberals, which she finds completely infuriating.

Some great conversations in there.

Also, would you kindly play Bioshock?

[Burma Jones]

57. Nope, I haven't read her stuff either

No literary reason to. No political reason to. My only reason would be morbid curiosity, kind of like videos of Saddam Hussein's execution

[revolution breeze]

58. Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged

My Philosophy class in college. I found her writing to be very difficult to follow, and definitely did not fit (nor does it now) with my ideology, but she definitely was able to make her point. I did not admire her style or her message but I can see why she is quoted by wingers.

[Scout]

60. nope, i haven't read her either ... and i've read a lot over my lifetime so far too. n/t

[Fire Walk With Me]

61. I never have. I've always gotten a very hard, bad vibe from her work.

[mcollins]

63. No.

I've never read any of Rand's books. No reason to.

[Book Lover]

64. Nope: I haven't either

I know that I should, and I'm sure that someday I will. But there are other, more important things to read first. Like my toothpaste tube.

[Zotz123]

65. Ayn Rand

There's nothing to miss. If you were a Republican with a subnormal IQ and the morals of Bernie Madoff it might be different.