Do I need to take notes as I read?

Darn book is over 1100 pages.   I'm half tempted just to cut the thing into 4 sections.

I'm wondering if there's a slew of characters, numerous vast plots, and twists and turns that might be better kept track of if I take notes.

I take notes often when reading.

I generally have 2-3 books going, and it helps.

For instance I'm reading Swiss Family Robinson, and my book marker has the names and ages of the boys.

Thanks.

It's a slow read my friend, and some might say an acquired taste.  No need for notes though, you'll be able to follow along easily

Hmmm.

Bought it a few days ago, and got sidetracked reading about Rand's Objectivism.

Put off reading it for a long time - just not really interested in this type of fiction.

Then I bought it for another member in the Gift Exchange here, and discovered Rand and Greenspan were friends.

That kinda made me wonder if her insights weren't based on an amount of truth.

Regardless, if it gets too slow or boring, I'll dump it on the shelf and say, "I tried."

ETA:  Just saw your edit.  Thanks.

THE ABRIDGED ATLAS SHRUGGED
02.19.2001
"It sure is hard to find good men now-a-days. I wonder what the hell is going on," Dagny smirked to herself as she entered the towering monolith to capitalism that was the headquarters of Taggart Transcontinental. "There are so few men like Hank Rearden, the man who single handedly invented a new greenish tint metal that is far stronger than steel," she said bursting in on her brother. "There are too many like you, Jim," she mocked.

"Well, if that's the case, you so-not-a-woman-and-I-can't-believe-a-woman-wrote-this, why don't you go redeem yourself by sleeping with him. By being his servile little mistress you'll serve the cause of capitalism far better than you have," Jim mocked.

Dagny smirked in her mocking way. Yes, she thought, she had tried that with another man, and it seemed so right until he, gasp, went to the other side. He became a slacker. Hank. Hank, Hank, Hank. Don't you know you're all I dream about though I don't actually do anything about it until page five-hundred? "I know what I want Jim, but what do you want?"

"Who is John Galt?"

"Don't say that! It's people asking that question that leads me to believe something sinister is happening in society. I think he's the destroyer." She mocked herself silently inside. How could a grown woman think such a thing? Oh, who was she kidding? She knew that women weren't much better than children anyway. Everyone knew that. It was a fluke she had any position in the railroad at all.

"It is I, Francisco d'Anconia, of the oldest most wealthy copper fortune this side of the Atlantic, and don't I want you to know that I'm pissing it all away for a grand reason that I won't tell you!" His perfect physique burst through the door in a mocking manner few could achieve but which he achieved perfectly. He had seen someone do the act before and fail and, after a single try at six months old, he was better at mockingly bursting through doors than anyone on the planet.

"Slacker," Dagny screamed with indignation and a pointed finger.

"Yes Dagny, you silly silly woman, I may seem a slacker to you, but after ten pages of explanation you will know that it is you who slack and it is I who serve a higher cause which will not be explained for another seven hundred pages. Remember, I am a d'Anconia which goes without saying that I know what I am doing," he mocked. He was so perfect at mocking. No man mocked like Francisco. How she wanted to be back in his arms. Were it not for... no! He was a slacker! The very embodiment of slack yet... yet he slacked with purpose. Even that was perfect. No man slacked like Francisco.

"What in capitalism's name is going on here," Hank yelled with bursting anger from the bottom of his manly lungs as he lunged through the door. It wasn't as perfect as Francisco's mockery, no man could touch that, but it was with the kind of power only a capitalist could muster. Dagny fluttered with lust.

"What the hell are you all doing in my office," Jim demanded weekly, the only way a socialist could demand.

"Hank, we must talk," Francisco said in a softly mocking way. Hank's heart fluttered with love he suddenly felt for the man. Even if he was a slacker, could my heart be wrong, Hank asked himself. He reached for Francisco's hand, wanting to hold him close.

"No," Dagny screamed with indignation and a pointed finger. "Please, I want him to take me and show me what a weak little girl I really am! That's what all women want!" Hank looked torn.

"Hey everybody," said a quiet voice from behind Hank. Hank took up most of the doorway with his manly capitalistic bulk. The crowd parted like the sea and a well groomed handsome man with a shock of boyish blond hair stood at the foot of it.

"John, you're not supposed to show up for eight-hundred more pages," Francisco said mockingly.

"Well, I got bored with the wait and figured what the hell. So... who wants to know what this is all about?" John smiled and every man's heart in the room melted. Dagny felt the overwhelming urge to become his servant and to clean up after him. That's what all women wanted after all, she figured.

"I do," Rearden capitalisticly demanded.

"Well, I couldn't deal with any government intervention in business and think that any kind of socialist tendency is kind of a bad idea, so me and my buddies, who all just happen to be the rich, powerful, and industrial, went on strike to bring the world to its knees." John said as he tossed back his blond hair with a light twitch of his head.

"For what purpose," Jim nearly cried. Socialists are such babies, thought John mockingly.

"Well, I don't like having to pay taxes or think about anything other than business. And, because I'm such an inexplicably charismatic guy, I figured I'd just get my industrialist buddies to back me," John said with a hint of mockery.

"Look," Jim sobbed. "The world is crumbling without you guys!"

"Well, once it's toast, we'll get to work but until then, who's up for some skiing in Colorado?"








http://www.spudworks.com/article/66/2/

Well vito, I'm not gonna read that until I know exactly what it is.

Is that a spoiler - ala Cliff's Notes?

The "aboutSpudworks" page is kinda lacking in detail as indicated by the title.

Notes would not hurt at all IMO. The book is long and I found myself going back and skimming previous passages to make sure I was remembering and interpreting properly.

Thanks.

I placed clear tape on the pages with important monologues so I can go back to them and re-read

Good tip - thanks.

1100 pages of interminable waffle condensed into 1.

 Basic premise of the book? Ayn Rand wants to be screwed by rich dudes.

Well damn.

I've read quite a few reviews of her book, but have yet to read a review like that.

I don't think that notes will be needed.



You'll see the parallels with what is happening today, and you'll wonder why this book (as overdone as it is) is not required reading.



When you get to the speech (you'll know it), take 4 Ibuprofen.

Thanks.


Parallels.  I keep hearing about all of them, then discovered the Rand/Greenspan connection, and took the plunge.


Rut Roh.

Long story short: the rich people and limousine liberals have all their stuff redistributed to the masses. The rich people without their head up their asses bug out to a secret valley and jerk each other off with solid golden dildos and silver fleshlights and have forced sex and long, often repeated dialogue. The End.

LULZ

Bingo.

I don't think it was intentional, but Rand's novels are geared towards a younger audience, say 16-22 year olds.  I went through a serious Randoid phase of my life where I digested everything I could get on Rand, from her published works, her NYT articles, and old reviews of her novels from the time they were published.

Her repetitive style, as I said, seems geared towards the demographic I stated when they are innocent, yet bullheaded and subsequently malleable.  She is a champion of rational expectations down to the micro level, which I think is where she fails at the very details of human nature and the political consequences of where Marxism steps in.

Overall, if you grew up in an environment of mixed socio-economic signals, Rand's message will give you good roots.  You have to figure out the rest for yourself.  It worked for me.

Not a fan, eh?

HAHA!

I enjoy it and connectible to today's events. But the book needed a 600 page haircut.





 

Somewhere, I heard there was some rape in this book.

Not particularly interested in reading that.

Rand has this thing about forced sex...

I don't know why and I don't how it's relevant to her plots in all her books.





She just wanted to be forcefully boned, I guess.





 

Cool - thanks.

I have to wonder if she intended to influence younger audiences, or if it just happened her book appealed to that group.

I didn't take notes, but I did mark my favorite or most poignant parts of the book with post-its.

It's not a book, it's a commitment.

Man, no freaking kidding.

Weird.

Wonder what Freud would say about all that.

Searching...

Vito- That abridged version kicks ass!  well done!

As to the OP...nah, no need to take notes.  It's pretty heavy reading, but the same basic points are made a hundred times over in a couple dozen different ways, you'll absorb it just fine.

I've done the same thing.  

Just dug through the desk and I'm out of the small ones.

Gotta get some.

Thanks.

She was a sexual fruit cake - rape fetish, serial adultery and some hyper-extreme pro-abortion views.

Amazing how so many people worship the social-darwinist atheist loon like a demi-god.

Yuk.

Repetition, eh?

I may hate this book.

I'm from the ABC of Communication Era.

Accuracy, Brevity, and Clarity.

I can deviate (pun intended) a bit when reading, but I have my limits.

HA!

She did not have extreme abortion views. She states her views on abortion is that it should only take place in the first trimester and she thinks it is not best to have a baby if your in a poor situation such as being in school or being unemployed.

If you have to read one of her books, read The Fountainhead.  It's the same basic theme but with fewer characters and shorter (but still 700+ pages).

Or read Demons by Dostoevsky which is a work of political fiction that's far more worthwhile.

Rand is fucking tedious.

It could be rewritten better in about 1/5th the amount of pages. There are many similarities about today's entitlements and what is said in Atlas. It's a scene played out in many socialistic cultures, in a linage progression that is. She probably saw it first hand. For a kicker, pick up London's Iron Heel. You'll find the first expression of "the motor of the world" there and what it means, written many years before Rand's. About the speeches, Francisco's was the best, Galt's, you best pack a lunch. By the way, Dagney's a slut.

Just read it. I think you'll find that it goes fast. Some parts go faster than others, but the story's moves. Most important novel I ever read.

She was radically anti-life and hostile towards the ideal of motherhood.  She went so far as to describe motherhood as a 'horror'.  

Apparently, her devotion to her atheistic, elitist, wealth-worshiping world-view was all encompassing.

The woman was a sociopathic windbag.  "Love for the embryos...is a piece of nonsense no one could experience."  

Link.

If you don't like to read, you may not get through the first 200 pages of this book. There are some very exciting parts and the effort is well worth it, but make no mistake it is an effort.
 

See, this is what intrigues me.

You say "most important novel I ever read."

Well, a novel is fiction.

Granted I've read some interesting fiction novels, but I wouldn't call any the most important.

Then, there appears to be an uncanny relationship between her book's theme and events happening today.

I'm curious.

She is calling it such a horror for the teen parents who give up their life dreams and who are unprepared for such a thing as parenthood.
She is talking about the single mothers who work 70 hours a week just to provide for their kid. that is no way to live.

I thoroughly enjoy reading, and it's probably how I spend the majority of my free time.

It spells out in great detail the things that will logically happen when socialist ideas begin to take hold of a society, from the very beginning, to the very end.  Along with this it adds many personal stories of *very* idealistic characters and how they deal with the situations around them.

The core theme of the book is the former, and is extremely accurate and almost prophetic considering where we find our society today.  It was an excellent read IMO.

Exactly - she assumes that there is no compensatory joy to motherhood to offset the sacrifice in affluence.

It combines the worst of the anti-life position of the radical feminists with a materialistic elitism which assumes that any child born into a situation of lesser affluence is automatically not going to enjoy a worthwhile life.

It's really a quite vile position, if you think about it.  

Lets agree to disagree. I understand where you are coming from and I dont even really agree with her views about it.

In one word - selfishness.

In more than one word - work for yourself and no-one else.  It was iriginally a treatise against communism.  The first 100––200 pages are great.  Everything is is just a rehash of those pages.  Skip to the end.  

jd1

I gave up at about 150 pages in, it was so damn boring.

I just started reading this today, I don't know if I'm going to be able to read it though.

Hang in there, it picks up after a bit.

 

You'll read it again... and again... and again. No real need for notes, although it helps to mark a few of your favorite passages.

I just read and let the story sort itself out. Things always get easier to keep track of as you get into it.

Both Moby Dick and War and Peace had a few pages (and talk about different scenes and characters in War and Peace .... sheesh). I had a similar feeling as you in the begining stages of each.

I just push through, and the story has a way of setting in and things become much easier to remember and keep track of over a little time.

I'd been hearing references to this book for years, so I got a copy for myself just before Christmas. It took me almost three months of off and on reading to finish it. I found the first 2-300 pages slow and boring. After that, it got interesting, and there were several parts where I didn't want to put it down! There were also sections that were wayyyyyy too long and redundant!

I'd suggest that anyone who is interested, take the time and effort to read it. We're not talking about writing a doctoral thesis here, it's just a sizable book! Worst case, you spend a small chunk of your life reading it, and you'll know what the fuss is about. Best case, it makes you think about the world we live in, and your views about it.

Not saying that Rand's ideas are right or wrong, but they ARE thought provoking!!!

IMHO, if you want to read some Ayn Rand, start with The Fountainhead.