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Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
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did not like it

The best way to understand Rand's message in this book is to simply close it, and beat yourself over the head with it as hard as possible. This is essentially what Rand does throughout it's ridiculous length. I see no reason that a book with a strong lesson can't also have decent character development, natural dialog, and a believable plot. Of course, I also think that you can establish a theme with subtlety, and trust that your reader will figure it out. Ayn Rand writes as if the elements of fiction get in the way of her message, and that reader's skull's are extraordinarily thick and require a firm beating over the head to absorb the theme. Countless philosophers have said the same thing better (and quicker).

I realize that I offend many atheists, agnostics and free thinkers by writing this, but as one myself, I have to say that a passionate love of Ayn Rand is not required for membership in that particular club. Save yourself a headache, and pick up the much shorter Anthem. It's just as overdone, but weighing it at ounces rather than pounds, it'll leave a smaller dent in your head.

Oh, and if you're only reading it to answer the question on geeky bumper sticker "Who is John Galt?" He's the hero and a symbol of the capitalism in it's conflict over what Rand saw as the oppressive and ultimately destructive forces of large government type societies (you, know. . .socialism, fascism, etc.). It's usually stuck on the butt end of a car to express general disenchantment with big government, and a lack of heroes. Now you know, so go read something worthwhile, and if you insist on reading Ayn Rand, hit her non-fiction. Stripped of an attempt at storytelling, she doesn't do half bad.
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Reading Progress

Started Reading
January 1, 2000 – Finished Reading
April 17, 2007 – Shelved

Comments Showing 1-50 of 50 (50 new)

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message 1: by Ak (last edited Aug 25, 2016 11:54AM) (new) - rated it 1 star

Ak i confess i didn't get very far into this book at all, so shouldn't judge it, but your first sentence just made my day. :D very nice


message 2: by Ravena (last edited Aug 25, 2016 12:17PM) (new) - rated it 3 stars

Ravena I also want to commend you on the first sentence of your review. Perfectly well stated.


message 3: by SC (last edited Aug 25, 2016 12:31PM) (new) - added it

SC Great review. And yes, the first sentence says it all.


message 4: by Cherry (new)

Cherry Man, and I always thought I was retarded for not being able to get pass the first chapter of this book. I'm glad to know others also felt like smacking themselves senseless with it.


message 5: by G. Branden (new) - added it

G. Branden Permit me to offer more praise for the first sentence of your review. People type "LOL" all the time but I really did laugh aloud in the privacy of my home office.

Bravo.


message 6: by Karl (new) - rated it 1 star

Karl Nordstrom Excellent summary of the quality of the book.


Steven In the second sentence, I think you mean "... throughout its ridiculous length."


message 8: by Nancy (new)

Nancy I completely agree with the comments regarding this book, but would like to encourage readers to give some consideration to picking up The Fountainhead. It is flawed too---but also soars in a few spots--and is a good summation of Rand's "virtue of selfishness" philosophy. Also, I have a very, very soft spot in my heart for Howard Roark (in The Fountainhead)which made the book worth reading for me.


Steven I think you mean "... and that readers' skulls ..."

Those pesky apostrophes.


message 10: by Jane (new) - rated it 1 star

Jane Lantz Thank you for your first sentence, it is the perfect summation and made me laugh after having suffered through this book which I had purposely managed to avoid for 40+ years (for bookclub...when I balked at reading it my openmindedness was challenged so I agreed).. someone else mentioned it does make a good doorstop..but I don't want to insult doorstops!!!!


message 11: by Adam (new) - added it

Adam I did laugh at your first sentence, have not personally read the book and therefore cannot assess its validity, but I would like to question why it has no spoiler alert placed upon it for the John Galt reference.


Brian Koenig Well, it's not a John Grisham novel. Ayn Rand was a Russian philospher who created the theory of objectivism--in my opinion, a brilliant moral and economic theory. Atlas Shrugged is about government, individual liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

If you understand the theory of objectivism, you might possibly see the brilliance of this novel. You read 100 pages and give it a 1 star rating? I don't think you guys get it.


message 13: by Gary (new) - rated it 1 star

Gary Hah..my sentiments exactly! Had I beat myself over the head at page 200 maybe I would have knocked enough sense into my head and I would have stopped reading it. As it was I didn't stop till page 500 or so, and I never, ever put a book down till it is done. This was my first.


message 14: by Ash (new) - rated it 1 star

Ash loved the first sentence :D I never got past the first few chapters, even though I tried reading it many times in the past.


message 15: by Trike (new) - rated it 1 star

Trike This first sentence is the single best summation of one of the worst books ever written.


message 16: by Crishell (new) - added it

Crishell I'm still trying to reconsider reading this... The first time I picked this book up, I couldn't get pass 40pages of it. It gave me headache.


message 17: by Deb (new) - rated it 1 star

Deb Very well said, I could not agree more. 330 pages in and I finally put it down with a huge thud.


message 18: by Mattias (new) - added it

Mattias Ivarsson This is quite possibly the best review of Atlas Shrugged I have ever read. My own "Effective as toilet paper" is a really bad one and it麓s麓not true. It isn麓t effective as toilet paper.


message 19: by Mattias (new) - added it

Mattias Ivarsson Marge wrote: "Atlas Shrugged is a philosophical novel, not a Harlequin romance. It's for people who think and like to read about people who actually have ideas and ideals."
No it麓s not


message 20: by Mattias (new) - added it

Mattias Ivarsson ?


message 21: by G. Branden (new) - added it

G. Branden The path to better Objectivist practice is, inarguably, to minimize the time one spends speaking to those who disagree.

By confining one's social relationships to those who are like-minded and agree without hesitation that A is A, and who unanimously agree to shun the looter metaphysics of autoepistemic "logic", one maximizes one's happiness in the pursuit of rational self-interest.

One's independence of thought and judgment is nowhere more convincingly proven than in a highly exclusive and selective environment wherein everyone sings from the same hymnal, as it were.

High five, Marge!


message 22: by Mattias (new) - added it

Mattias Ivarsson Yet you spent a lot of time writing that! Look I disagree with Ayn Rand麓s "philosophy" but I have no problem at all to read something I disagree with. I think Atlas shrugged is a poorly written novel and it麓s got nothing to do with her twisted political ideas.


message 23: by Mattias (new) - added it

Mattias Ivarsson However: High fives to the both of you


message 24: by G. Branden (new) - added it

G. Branden Oh, dear. If my sarcasm was lost on people--and that is always a risk when talking baseball that far inside--I am deeply chagrinned.


message 25: by Deb (last edited Feb 29, 2012 10:54PM) (new) - rated it 1 star

Deb It was not lost on me, I found your sarcasm to be brilliant! Perhaps the high five threw the curve? LOL


message 26: by Mattias (new) - added it

Mattias Ivarsson I麓m a swede and I don麓t understand baseball. I do understand Ayn Rand though even with my very limited intellect.
Again: I find her novels to be poorly written (almost unreadable in fact) and I can麓t find anything in them George W Bush who one can not call a verbal genius couldn麓t spit out when he was high on coke. But that麓s my opinion. I know she was born in Leningrad during the oppressive Soviet era (the Soviet union was not about socialism, it was about domination and terror) but why all of that morphed into some sort of freaky social darwinism is beyond me. Rand reminds me of Boyd Rice. She was a nut-job. High fives comrades!


message 27: by Mattias (new) - added it

Mattias Ivarsson So it麓s either A. Agree with Ayn Rand and no rolling around in poop or B. Disagree with Ayn and roll around in poop?
I think you麓re right Marge. When you run out of arguments and begin to talk about excrements there麓s zero reason to discuss anything. But you麓re a fantastic comedian. I have to admit that


message 28: by G. Branden (new) - added it

G. Branden Mattias,

I humbly disagree with your assessment of Marge's comedic skills.

You see, I've heard the entire act before.

It goes back to the early 1960s.

After 50 years, the comedy wears a little thin. No Moli茅re here...


message 29: by Mattias (new) - added it

Mattias Ivarsson I know. What baffles me though is why the Randists are so angry all the time. It麓s like an angry little cult. I guess there aren麓t that many writers on the far right to cling to and maybe that麓s why they are so protective? I dunno.
BTW out of curiosity I watched the movie adaptation of Atlas shrugged and that was proper comedy but it was better than the book.


message 30: by Kirk (new) - added it

Kirk Carver Marge
I think you are missing the point: for the most part the criticisms of the book posted here have nothing to do with Rand's philosophy. It's the fact that the book is poorly written as a narrative that turns people off.
Kirk


message 31: by Deb (new) - rated it 1 star

Deb Thank you Kirk, very well said.


message 32: by G. Branden (new) - added it

G. Branden Let's not be needlessly reductionistic here.

It is perfectly possible for Ayn Rand's novels to suck both as philosophy *and* as literature!


message 33: by Mattias (new) - added it

Mattias Ivarsson Exactly


Patrick Johnson This is the same review I would write for any Tolkien book...

However I enjoy Rand many degrees of magnitude more.


Roxie Maree I rather enjoyed Atlas Shrugged, but I must give props to your opening line. Pure gold


message 36: by Alena (new) - rated it 1 star

Alena Goulbourne Couldn't agree more!


message 37: by Pat (new) - added it

Pat Johns Who is John Galt? I know after several chapters of this I Shrugged and picked up a good novel.


Brandy This will undoubtedly be the most hilarious thing I read all day. Thank you! lol


message 39: by Rachel (new)

Rachel Funny my dad really liked Anthem and I keep meaning to check it out. Funny review n I think based on the replies I'll skip this one.


Akaitsoti Lol!! The first sentence: epic!!!!


message 41: by Joey (new) - rated it 4 stars

Joey Costello I think the point is, that it is not badly written and better than most authors. Is she the best author the world had ever produced? Of course not, there is no such thing. But it is good enough and much better than I can do. There is a unique story and a point. It's supposed to give you a headache, that's called thinking.


Mieghley That first sentence is absolutely what it felt like trying to read this book


message 43: by Uma (new) - rated it 1 star

Uma Exactly how I felt


William Any Rand's ego-driven jungle ME ME ME capitalism is just as repressive and destructive as cod-communism and cod-socialism. Plus it rapes the planet and only serves the super-rich.

GREED is truly the most terrible challenge of our times, and capitalism is its tool, its means to power and more greed.

Greed is a (contagious) mental illness, an unfillable hole, a hunger that denies justice, a brutal expression of broken egos.

Greed is having a million times as much as the poor and still feeling you don't have enough.

Greed consumes the earth without respite, and is a cancer on humanity.

Greed destroys us and our children and their future.

Greed is death.


Franklin Irelan bwahaha impotent looters all!


message 46: by William (last edited Dec 07, 2017 12:44PM) (new) - rated it 1 star

William I am very, very liberal, and it's not success or possessions I hate, it's GREED. Especially greed while stepping on others, abusing and exploiting them, and waving the flag of Wall Street "Greed is Good".

Greed is having a million times as much as the poor and still feeling you don't have enough.


William This Is the Long Game of the Republican Coup d'Etat

A tax "reform" scam to borrow a Trillion dollars from the young, give it to the rich in return for never-ending campaign donations for the GOP.

Then they dismantle social security, pensions, healthcare, wages, cripple government revenues and end democracy in America.

btw- They WILL BE FIRING Mueller soon. Sorry.




message 48: by Merc (new) - added it

Merc Bahhahahahaa


Christopher Reid Surely the book is not that bad. I'm 3/4 through and, yes, it's long and a bit dry, but it's full of interesting, powerful ideas which make use of a narrative structure, characters, etc. One star?


message 50: by Linda (new)

Linda Morton ...in its conflict... not it's


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