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Posted: 1/20/2020 10:36:42 PM EDT
It seems like a must read for anti-communists, so I borrowed the audio version from the library.
It's ~65 hours. I'm 10 hours into it and I'm having a really hard time staying interested. It seems like there's so much fluff and weird situations and conversations that go on forever. I saw the three movies and I enjoyed them but this thing is dragging. I'm at the point where rairdon metal is being used to repair part of the railroad and the government is trying to make everyone not like it because of feels. There's been two people who have told stories about John Galt being an explorer who found Atlantis and the fountain of youth. It's almost like a job because of how long it is and I only have it for 18 more days. Is it worth sticking this thing out? |
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Posted: 1/20/2020 10:51:36 PM EDT
[#1]
Yes. I liked it more and more as it progressed. Stick with it.
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Posted: 1/20/2020 11:30:17 PM EDT
[#2]
I did the book, I’m not sure if the audio would be any good to listen to.
I read it AFTER the movie if that helps. |
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Posted: 1/20/2020 11:45:31 PM EDT
[#3]
Great book, worth finishing.
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TN, USA
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Posted: 1/20/2020 11:48:27 PM EDT
[#4]
Originally Posted By DFARM:
It seems like a must read for anti-communists, so I borrowed the audio version from the library. It's ~65 hours. I'm 10 hours into it and I'm having a really hard time staying interested. It seems like there's so much fluff and weird situations and conversations that go on forever. I saw the three movies and I enjoyed them but this thing is dragging. I'm at the point where rairdon metal is being used to repair part of the railroad and the government is trying to make everyone not like it because of feels. There's been two people who have told stories about John Galt being an explorer who found Atlantis and the fountain of youth. It's almost like a job because of how long it is and I only have it for 18 more days. Is it worth sticking this thing out? Not the movies lol, they go bad quick, especially the last, its just terrible, so terrible |
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Posted: 1/20/2020 11:49:49 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Krashdog]
[#5]
My mother gave me the book as a gift. It’s her favorite of all time. She’s an incredibly intelligent woman who’s read probably over 1000 books. I respect her literary opinion.
I just couldn’t do it. God knows I tried but damn. Very long winded. I’ll just have to take everyone’s word for it that it’s epic 1984 on the other hand, I’ve read over half a dozen times.and will read again. Brave new world..... I didn’t make it very far |
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Posted: 1/21/2020 12:06:44 AM EDT
[#6]
You make it through Galt's speech yet? That's the part in the book that I skimmed.
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Posted: 1/21/2020 12:10:20 AM EDT
[#7]
it would have been a good candidate for Readers Digest Condensed Books.
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Posted: 1/21/2020 12:27:13 AM EDT
[#8]
Gets better once you get to the WI car factory.
Still, 65 hours of audio? I don't recall it taking that much time to read. |
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MA, USA
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Posted: 1/21/2020 12:30:50 AM EDT
[#9]
I'll be honest, it's best read Freshman / Sophomore year of high school. The messaging is good and it's a decent novel, but it's not a literary masterpiece.
Have you read Dostoevsky? |
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Posted: 1/21/2020 1:07:47 AM EDT
[#10]
Awesome book and yes it keeps getting better! The movie series however was an absolute embarrassment and is impossible to describe how badly it was done...
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Posted: 1/21/2020 1:20:10 AM EDT
[Last Edit: DFARM]
[#11]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Chuck_Finley_IV: Not the movies lol, they go bad quick, especially the last, its just terrible, so terrible Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Chuck_Finley_IV: Not the movies lol, they go bad quick, especially the last, its just terrible, so terrible My biggest gripe about the movies was not having consistent actors to play the characters. Originally Posted By That_Guy_MA:
Have you read Dostoevsky? I'll Google it. |
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Posted: 1/21/2020 1:21:39 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Currahee]
[#12]
I agree with almost everything the book wanted to convey.
However, I found it to be one of the most poorly written and outrageously tedious reads I have ever undertaken. |
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MS, USA
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Posted: 1/21/2020 1:34:12 AM EDT
[#13]
An excellent runner up to Unintended Consequences.
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Posted: 1/21/2020 1:44:40 AM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By KEA:
An excellent runner up to Unintended Consequences. 
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Posted: 1/21/2020 2:00:26 AM EDT
[#15]
Stay with it. It gets better. One the best books I ever read. Not sure how appealing it would be in an audio format though. You owe it to yourself to see it through. Things pick up during the train crash where the socialists, academic elites, and government bureaucrats perish.. Rand was a harsh woman. She makes the point their demise was the result of their philosophy.
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Posted: 1/21/2020 8:29:35 AM EDT
[#16]
Awesome book, it moves more as you get into it.
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Posted: 1/21/2020 9:29:04 AM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By sgtlmj:
You make it through Galt's speech yet? That's the part in the book that I skimmed. |
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Posted: 1/21/2020 12:34:04 PM EDT
[#18]
The internal monologues seem so unnecessary.
"to see you submit to any of my infamous desires only to receive some sordid sensation" A simple, "damn. Look at dem titties..." Would have worked in a fraction of the time. Lol |
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Posted: 1/21/2020 7:46:28 PM EDT
[#19]
I think it's starting to go somewhere. Taggert and rairdon are out poking around looking for people who worked at 20th century motors.
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Posted: 1/22/2020 5:01:54 PM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By DFARM:
I think it's starting to go somewhere. Taggert and rairdon are out poking around looking for people who worked at 20th century motors. |
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Posted: 1/22/2020 8:25:21 PM EDT
[#21]
The dude who has the mines from Argentina is a pretty interesting character. Instead of just disappearing he's trying to burn it all.
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Posted: 1/23/2020 6:52:10 PM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By olscruffy:
it would have been a good candidate for Readers Digest Condensed Books. |
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Posted: 1/23/2020 7:42:40 PM EDT
[#23]
I got to reardons "trial" today.
I thought it was pretty awesome. Just straight up acknowledged what they were doing and refused to participate. |
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Posted: 1/28/2020 1:13:49 AM EDT
[#24]
I got to the part where Dagney snuck into the secret town today.
It definitely picked up after the train wreck. I'm actually enjoying it now. Lol |
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Posted: 1/28/2020 1:48:09 PM EDT
[#25]
Hint: Atlas Shrugged is not about trains.
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Posted: 1/28/2020 8:45:01 PM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By spartacus2002:
Hint: Atlas Shrugged is not about trains. 
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Posted: 1/28/2020 8:54:44 PM EDT
[Last Edit: DFARM]
[#27]
You guys could have put that in a spoiler tag! Now the book is ruined.
I'm right at 20 hours left. I just listened to Dagney confess her affair with reardon on the radio and the conversation she had with him afterward. WTF is with this chick? She wants to bone every guy that gives her attention. I'm a little surprised she didn't throw a piece of pie to the tramp who had dinner with her on the train. Lol |
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Posted: 1/28/2020 9:07:31 PM EDT
[#28]
This is a book that chooses its readers. With very few exceptions, the folks I've known that found it to be too much work to read, wouldn't have liked it or understood it anyway even if they made it through.
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Posted: 1/28/2020 11:07:28 PM EDT
[#29]
Once you get into the"meat" of the story it isn't difficult to grasp.
It has been work to get this far into it I think because of how detailed the author gets in the internal thoughts of the characters, plus every conversation turns into a 20 minute long rant by one of the characters. Maybe I'm just one of those impatient people with a short attention span. I looked at reading the book a few times and when I went to buy it I was intimidated by the size. I have watched all 3 of the movies and enjoyed them even with all of their shortcomings. When I saw that the library had it as an audiobook I figured that I'd give it a try because I listen to podcasts or audiobooks at work most of the time anyways. |
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Posted: 1/28/2020 11:22:01 PM EDT
[#30]
From what I am told, Tramp on the train is not in the abridged audiobook. Which makes no sense because it is the pivotal moment in the entire story,
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Posted: 1/29/2020 10:31:32 PM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By amannamedjed:
Ditto. Loved every part of it but that. I’ll use it for insomnia next time. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By amannamedjed:
Originally Posted By sgtlmj:
You make it through Galt's speech yet? That's the part in the book that I skimmed. |
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Posted: 1/30/2020 8:06:16 PM EDT
[#32]
Holy crap. I finally finished it on my way home from work today.
I'm glad I listened to most of it (I skipped ahead a bit through the radio speech this morning. I just couldn't sit through it. Lol). The ending was kinda lame, but I suppose the meat/moral of the story was more in the beginning and middle third or so. I'm a bit disappoint that there wasn't anything about what everyone did back at galts gulch or how much time had gone by before John told Dagney that the road was clear and they were going back. I'd like a sequel to this story to see how the rebuilding goes. |
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Posted: 1/30/2020 8:22:51 PM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By spartacus2002:
From what I am told, Tramp on the train is not in the abridged audiobook. Which makes no sense because it is the pivotal moment in the entire story, God, it’s been over 20 years since I’ve read that. |
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Posted: 1/30/2020 11:35:42 PM EDT
[#34]
No, that kid was a brake man or something. A railroad employee.
The tramp was stealing a ride in n the vestibule for dagneys car and the conductor found him and Dagney had dinner with him. He told his story about the 20th century motors. |
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Posted: 1/31/2020 2:32:37 AM EDT
[#35]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By DFARM:
No, that kid was a brake man or something. A railroad employee. The tramp was stealing a ride in n the vestibule for dagneys car and the conductor found him and Dagney had dinner with him. He told his story about the 20th century motors. |
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Posted: 1/31/2020 12:46:53 PM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Bohr_Adam: Ahh, OK. The story within a story. Couldn’t remember the details of how the story was told. So... clearly they don’t leave out the 20th Century Motors story in the abridged version. I wonder how the heck they work the story in, then. The brakeman kid was probably more important to the big story. |
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RI, USA
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Posted: 1/31/2020 1:14:58 PM EDT
[#37]
She escaped from Russia (Soviet Union)
Russians write like that. |
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Posted: 1/31/2020 1:17:01 PM EDT
[#38]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By DFARM:
I don't think the tramp himself or his story was actually all that important to the bigger picture. He basically just tells the story of how the car company fell apart and how John Galt quit the day that the company agreed to be a workers paradise. It was basically just another long winded story about how socialism is terrible. The brakeman kid was probably more important to the big story. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By DFARM:
Originally Posted By Bohr_Adam: Ahh, OK. The story within a story. Couldn’t remember the details of how the story was told. So... clearly they don’t leave out the 20th Century Motors story in the abridged version. I wonder how the heck they work the story in, then. The brakeman kid was probably more important to the big story. |
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Posted: 1/31/2020 1:26:28 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By sgtlmj:
You make it through Galt's speech yet? That's the part in the book that I skimmed. Epic book..... but that damn speech. 
Love the first one about money being the root of all evil though. Should be mandatory education in every language One of the most enlightening passages Ive ever read. |
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Posted: 2/1/2020 1:37:17 AM EDT
[#40]
I think the speach ended up being around 3 hours long. He says so later in the book and it was about that on the audio book. Lol
Like most of the long winded stuff in the book, I think the point was made in the first 3-5 minutes. The rest just pounds your brain to mush. Lol |
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Posted: 2/6/2020 8:48:23 PM EDT
[#41]
Check out anthem.
Much shorter with similar message. |
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Posted: 2/6/2020 11:11:06 PM EDT
[#42]
Anthem was much shorter. I found that one as a podcast. I enjoyed it.
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Posted: 3/11/2020 9:15:25 PM EDT
[#43]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By DFARM:
Anthem was much shorter. I found that one as a podcast. I enjoyed it. One is to watch THX1138. The other is to listen to Rush's 2112. Neither one involves the book itself. Rand may have been a wise woman but she was a lousy writer who needed George Lucas and Neil Peart to interpret her. |
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TX, USA
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Posted: 4/23/2020 9:19:20 AM EDT
[#44]
Atlas Shrugged is a great book, after slogging through the first 500 pages...
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Posted: 4/24/2020 7:44:43 AM EDT
[#45]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By PaulWW: She escaped from Russia (Soviet Union) Russians write like that. Holy shit, this. I'm proud to have had her as an American, but that book is an excercise in brutalism as literary style. |
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Posted: 4/24/2020 6:05:34 PM EDT
[#46]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By PaulWW: She escaped from Russia (Soviet Union) Russians write like that. Yup. Much more Tolstoy than Twain. There are exceptions to the rule. I find Solzhenitsyn quite easy to read. Chekhov and Bulgakov were also pretty efficient. Tolstoy is just such a dominating figure in Russian literature... and seems to have really inspired the verbosity of Ms. Rand. |
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Posted: 4/24/2020 6:06:29 PM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By spartacus2002: I thought it was crucial, because it was the one John Galt story that was actually real. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By spartacus2002: Originally Posted By DFARM: Originally Posted By Bohr_Adam: Ahh, OK. The story within a story. Couldn’t remember the details of how the story was told. So... clearly they don’t leave out the 20th Century Motors story in the abridged version. I wonder how the heck they work the story in, then. I don't think the tramp himself or his story was actually all that important to the bigger picture. He basically just tells the story of how the car company fell apart and how John Galt quit the day that the company agreed to be a workers paradise. It was basically just another long winded story about how socialism is terrible. The brakeman kid was probably more important to the big story. I thought it was crucial, because it was the one John Galt story that was actually real. This. The whole book is about the man. That finally offered the real back story and explained what made him tick. |
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NV, USA
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Posted: 4/29/2020 9:31:34 PM EDT
[#48]
The Fountainhead is a great book.
Atlas Shrugged sucks. I love a big long book (I read 200-400 pages a day.) But Atlas is filled with repetitive and unnecessary shit, and isn't nearly as good as the Fountainhead. Really, the deal breaker is the 'Radio Address.' At this point we're like 700+ pages into the book. Her political point has been made many times over. But no, she decides to do another 30 pages of direct, political soliloquy. Ultimately its insulting to the readers intelligence, and also just further drops the overall enjoyability. |
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Posted: 4/29/2020 9:43:33 PM EDT
[#49]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By spydercomonkey: The Fountainhead is a great book. Atlas Shrugged sucks. I love a big long book (I read 200-400 pages a day.) But Atlas is filled with repetitive and unnecessary shit, and isn't nearly as good as the Fountainhead. Really, the deal breaker is the 'Radio Address.' At this point we're like 700+ pages into the book. Her political point has been made many times over. But no, she decides to do another 30 pages of direct, political soliloquy. Ultimately its insulting to the readers intelligence, and also just further drops the overall enjoyability. I've read the book twice. Have never once read that whole radio address. |
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Posted: 6/7/2020 2:49:25 PM EDT
[#50]
It may not be the best book you ever read....but it is one of the most important books TO READ.
I personally think that Galt's Speech is a critical portion of the book. |
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