I read my way through ‘Atlas Shrugged’ and may get round to ‘The Fountainhead’ at some point. I found the book really interesting (though John Galt’s 60-page speech was bit much, frankly): her characters are often very driven and not particularly pleasant. Dagny Taggart’s not bad, forthright and ambitious, and devoted to her railways – until she falls in love, and then feels she has to be dominated. Yick.

You’re right, I think Hemingway was not a nice guy. I love a Farewell to Arms, though, and the Old Man and the Sea.

I personally found Ayn Rand to be worth reading because she has been so influential and I wanted to understand why. Her writing style is totally unique and the way she thinks is too. Also, she really does write to make an ideological / philosophical point (she calls it philosophy but I don’t think I would even agree with that term). I personally tend to enjoy books where a point is being made, even if it’s one I disagree with vehemently. It was a thought-provoking read, for sure, and a great book for discussion. I’d really expected it to be heavy-going and difficult to read, but although it was pretentious and long, actually it was a fairly gripping story, so I whizzed through it. The characters were bizarre and over-planned and not real people, but somehow in the weird context of the version of the world she had set it in, it all kind of came together. There was also something a little Mad Men about it which I liked.

I think I will probably read Atlas Shrugged one day… but not until I’ve had like 3 Ayn Rand free years. Sometimes I am still baffled that someone who actually thinks that way really exists.

Don’t waste your sympathy on Ayn Rand. She was pretty horrible personally and plus, she would have flipped her s*** if she knew you were feeling sorry for her.

I know! I know she does! Only ouch, he was really hard on her, and she’s not alive to defend herself, poor little sausage.

I did like the part where he met with the Jewish girl who wrote that story. That was a really good scene, I thought.

I am just the same. Boarding school books. I can’t get enough of them. I did live in a dorm, but it did not have that boarding-school-dorm feeling to it, I’m afraid.

I was loath to return it to the library because I kept wanting to reread some of the scenes. However, I decided against, because I want it to still be fresh for a reread someday.

That is my big reason for not reading The Road! He didn’t use quotation marks and then he tried to justify it by making fun of quotation marks! (Yes, that is the reason. Not the cannibalism.)