Am I brain-dead?
I have been trying to read Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” for quite a while, but my progress is painfully slow.
Is this normal?
The copy I have has 1,069 pages, and each page is dense with small type. I think this part of the problem. The text is really small.
However, it is also a slow read. It isn’t a face-paced, edge-of-your-seat thriller.
Is that how other people see it?
I wanted to read the book because I know it is famous, and the idea that it is a philosophical manifesto intrigues me.
But, I am struggling. I like the story so far, but really getting into it is taking a lot longer than I expected.
So, do any of you out there have any advice? Is it a good enough book to push through?
Any thoughts on the matter would be much appreciated.
Brother, don’t beat yourself up. I have tried to read it several times for the same reasons you are. And I struggled with it as well. To alleviate the self induced guilt and shame of NOT reading this book I would search for people who think its an awful slow paced peace of crap only to find that it really is just me. Finally I found an online comic version of it and read that. And from what I remember, I hated it. I have worked through much of my shame now and come to grips with the fact that I am a simple man with simple tastes. Give me a cold Pabstt Blue Ribbon, a Mad Magazine and Smokey and the Bandit. Ayn Rand and John Galt can both go fuck themselves.