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What is a popular book that everyone buys but nobody reads? (midwest.social)

submitted 2 years ago by Lanky_Pomegranate530@midwest.social to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee 63 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Anything by Ayn Rand. She’s a terrible author and most people are more interested in showing that they could have read The Fountainhead than actually reading that unfun, meandering garbage.

[–] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 18 points 2 years ago

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

-John Rogers

[–] benignintervention@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

I tried to read the Fountainhead twice when I was a teenager and I never got more than a third of the way. It felt like watching an old person try to remember their shopping list

[–] bubbalu@hexbear.net 11 points 2 years ago

Yeah. My grandpa made me read Atlas Shrugged when I was in HS and it was so dumb it made me a communist. I did like the scene with the fast train on the green rails. Literally the only scene in the whole book with imagery.

[–] JuryNullification@hexbear.net 9 points 2 years ago

Nothing killed libertarianism for 19 year old me like reading that trash.

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 5 points 2 years ago

Can you blame them? Even South Park made fun of how bad Atlas Shrugged is.