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Linda Oliver's avatar

I read Ayn Rand in high school and thought she was full of it.

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Sheri's avatar

The only work of hers that I read was Anthem.

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Craig Butcher's avatar

I recall reading Anthem in fifth grade and thinking how much it was like being shouted at by a lunatic who had no idea he was repeating himself over and over. A teacher or librarian recommended it to me as a really important and wise book. Even though it's only about 50 pages long the substance of it was pretty fully beaten to death in a few pages. I went through the whole thing trying to find the part where it was important and wise but apparently any matter of that sort had been edited out, perhaps due to a concern that it would baffle the target readership. This experience helped dispel my 10 year old default assumption that being a grownup necessarily meant being smarter than I was.

I think at the same age I first read Animal Farm. That partly restored my faith n the perspicacity of at least some adults.

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Linda Oliver's avatar

I think it was тАЬThe Virtue of SelfishnessтАЭ that I read, and I thought it was just tedious intellectual justification for self-absorption. It was dull. I think I heard about her from watching William F. Buckley & Gore Vidal, who were great to watch together, but she was boring.

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Pete C's avatar

I tried reading Rand in high school and even at that early age found the prose so dreadful that I gave up after about 30 pages.

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Lynn  Bentson's avatar

yes , crummy writing and a truly horrible morality , if you call it that

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Chris's avatar

I had the same experience. A family friend tried getting me to read Atlas Shrugged all the way through. I could not get more than a few chapters in.

I don't even remember getting into the philosophical weeds with it, the book is just so powerfully boring. It should be administered as a prophylactic before anesthesia.

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Katie Harris's avatar

I remember throwing one of her books against the wall I was so disgusted with her BS тАЬphilosophyтАЭ.

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Sko Hayes's avatar

I found Atlas Shrugged in my grandfather's books (he was a staunch Republican), I read it and forced myself to finish it. Yuck.

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