10 Things I Learned About the World from "Atlas Shrugged'

[merrylander]

Read both in my late teens and thought she was being paid by the word because the inscription above John Galt's powerhouse said what she spent a thousand pages rehashing. Total waste of my allowance.

Somerset Maugham was another waste of allowance, then I found Lloyd C. Douglass and also met some people who knew him. He was a country church pastor in the Eastern Townships maybe 76-80 miles from where I was growing up.

[icenine]

Originally Posted by merrylander

Read both in my late teens and thought she was being paid by the word because the inscription above John Galt's powerhouse said what she spent a thousand pages rehashing. Total waste of my allowance.

Somerset Maugham was another waste of allowance, then I found Lloyd C. Douglass and also met some people who knew him. He was a country church pastor in the Eastern Townships maybe 76-80 miles from where I was growing up.

I liked Of Human Bondage, The Razor's Edge and The Moon and Sixpence.

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by icenine

I liked Of Human Bondage, The Razor's Edge and The Moon and Sixpence.

Oh he was a talented writer, mo doubt about that, but he used the real life episodes of people he knew for his plots and did little to hide the names.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by merrylander

Read both in my late teens and thought she was being paid by the word because the inscription above John Galt's powerhouse said what she spent a thousand pages rehashing. Total waste of my allowance.

Somerset Maugham was another waste of allowance, then I found Lloyd C. Douglass and also met some people who knew him. He was a country church pastor in the Eastern Townships maybe 76-80 miles from where I was growing up.

If you like Canadian writers of the "dark" variety, check out Robertson Davies.

John

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by Boreas

If you like Canadian writers of the "dark" variety, check out Robertson Davies.

John

And Margaret Atwood in fact I have her "Year of the flood" half read.

The thing I learned about Douglass was that writing did not come easy to him, but he felt that he had a message to spread. I can appreciate what he must have gone through, my novel is up to Chapter 26 but I am still not happy with it, something is missing but I can't put my finger on it.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by merrylander

And Margaret Atwood in fact I have her "Year of the flood" half read.

The thing I learned about Douglass was that writing did not come easy to him, but he felt that he had a message to spread. I can appreciate what he must have gone through, my novel is up to Chapter 26 but I am still not happy with it, something is missing but I can't put my finger on it.

Have you let Florence read it? She might see it.

John

[merrylander]

I was lucky as a teen, lousy at sports so I buried myself in books. My parents let me read anything in the family library. I guess they figured if it was over my head I would simply put it back. Read most of Jane Austen's works before 19 as well as Lloyd C. Douglass. As well as a lot of writers of that period.

Oh Thorne Smith's Topper series was quite fun.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by merrylander

I was lucky as a teen, lousy at sports so I buried myself in books. My parents let me read anything in the family library. I guess they figured if it was over my head I would simply put it back. Read most of Jane Austen's works before 19 as well as Lloyd C. Douglass. As well as a lot of writers of that period.

Oh Thorne Smith's Topper series was quite fun.

My favorite authors when I was young were Jules Verne, Jack London, and Robert Heinlein.

[merrylander]

She has it on a CD but It is a matter of her finding time. For two old people we seem to be buswier than ever, guess we have slowed down some.

Plus it might evoke memories she would rather leave buried, It started when a cousin sent us a photo of her between sixteen and seventeen. She was very lovely even then but the eyes looked so sad. I looked at it and got thinking 'If only we had met then, how much heartache would have been avoided on both sides'. Well one day I started typing and I guess got carried away. I doubt that I would ever publish it - too personnal.

I guess we all have to go through our own personnal Hell, it is supposed to build character they tell me. Anyway it is all in the distant past and the 31 years since the blizzard have been sheer bliss.

[merrylander]

Once I started work (at 17) in Montreal it was over a one hour train ride morning and night so I went through paperbacks like a prarie fire, Louis L'Amour for wsterns, Heinlein, Frank Herbert (Dune), Anne McCaffrey (Dragons of Pern), Jack London of course and a bunch of others whose names slip my mind at the moment.

Of course while brown bagging it we read over lunch as well.

Then later in life when I started working in International Standards there were those long flights to Europe. There was even one to Australia but I was too busy trying to persuade my pretty seatmate not to get off in Hawaii but to go on to Melboune with me to have any time to read.