is anybody a fan of her or her novels?

I've never read any of her books.

I've never read any of her books.

 

 

 

never? :(

 

who do you like?

I loooove V.C Andrews. I'm only on her third book but I bought the whole series at a used bookstore so I own them all. :cool: Stephen King and Dean Koontz are cool too. And I'll try not to set the geek alarm off but I love Shakespeare too :confused:

I loooove V.C Andrews. I'm only on her third book but I bought the whole series at a used bookstore so I own them all. :cool: Stephen King and Dean Koontz are cool too. And I'll try not to set the geek alarm off but I love Shakespeare too :confused:

 

 

i've never had the chance to read any of her novels... any recommendations to start off with?

I would start with Flowers In The Attic which is her first. It's a super book. I think you would like it :D

I would start with Flowers In The Attic which is her first. It's a super book. I think you would like it :D

 

 

yea... that is definitely her most popular one... I just always forget about it when looking for a new book to read. But someday soon I will check it out

I don't think many guys pick it up because the title makes it sounds like a sissy girl book. :lol:

I don't think many guys pick it up because the title makes it sounds like a sissy girl book. :lol:

 

 

you may be right about that jess... I'm still very curious about it though since i've heard praise about it many times

You know that saying about not judging books by their covers? :smug: It applies to this book :P

My fav Virginia Andrews is My Sweet Audrina. Its the only one of hers that I know of which isn't part of a series.

Yup it's the only one. :) I have yet to read that one.

Its one of the better ones because it was actually written by Virginia Andrews. I stopped reading the later series because I didn't think they were as good once someone else started writing when she died.

Yeah and it's stupid how other people kept writing under her name..it's like, just don't make any more books :idea2:

Exactly!! Everyone knows its not her so why keep writing books in her name?

Some people.... :rolleyes: :lol:

Ancient thread. But I was wondering if anybody has read Ayn Rand's stuff. She is slowly changing my life.

I read John Galt's speech in Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

 

She has a wonderful philosophy, I just don't think she is logically consistent by supporting government. If you're going to believe that taxation is theft (which it is!), you need to go the full distance and become an anarcho-capitalist.

 

The fear many libertarians/objectivists have with anarchy, is they don't believe society would remain stable without a government. Two economists, Ludvig von Mises and Murray Rothbard, have dealt a serious blow to this commonly accepted thinking. If you study Austrian economics, you see that the State is actually a detriment to society, and laws (which were originally intended to protect our rights) are primarily used to abrogate them. Governments are meant to protect us from violence, but the police generally only clean up after you've been murdered - they don't actually prevent the murder. Your odds of being killed in a terrorist attack are less than being struck by lightning. Standing armies are unnecessary today with the invention of nuclear weapons (for deterrence), yet the US still has one, and still uses them to invade other nations.

 

Overall, government is a bad deal. You're giving up 50% of your income for... relatively little. And your odds of being attacked for non-violent "crimes" is increased dramatically.

I have to agree with everything you said there. Didn't know specifically about Austria, interesting. But yes, Rand's views on goverment, administration, economics are quite inconsistent and contradict themselves often.. she's also not a great novelist, her characters are somewhat one-sided and irrational (though the language is often beautiful). But I've learned through many years of reading (as I'm sure many have) to take just away what I find significant from each novel, essay, etc I read, and I love Rand's view on how people should live their lives, her humanism and sense of the glory of human achievement. it really is inspirational..without being corny most of the time.

Also, she's kind of just fun to read. hehe.

I've heard great things and brief summaries of atlas shrugged and Ayn Rand's philosophy. I plan on tackling it this Fall.

Ooh, enjoy. I might suggest reading The Fountainhead first, see if you like it, Atlas Shrugged is really, really long.

I'm told Atlas Shrugged is a must read, I just haven't gotten around to reading it.

We read Anthem in English this past year. After reading it my whole class, aside from myself, was convinced that any form of Egoism is evil, and we should all strive to be fucking communist Altruists.

 

They didn't even understand the basic concept of the book. Poor literary analysis FTL.

We read Anthem in English this past year. After reading it my whole class, aside from myself, was convinced that any form of Egoism is evil, and we should all strive to be fucking communist Altruists.

 

They didn't even understand the basic concept of the book. Poor literary analysis FTL.

Same scenario with me, was your teacher under 30?