Poll -- Is the novel dead (to you)?

[Albaby]

Read everynight. sometimes in print, the rest of the time Kindle  app on android tablet.Thank God for Amazon. I can read anywhere in the world.

[billd766]

3 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I wonder if people that grew up with tv were able to develop an imagination to the same extent that those of us that grew up without tv did.

I notice that when I watch tv my brain switches off to an extent. IMO if we don't use our brain much it isn't going to work as well.

It was the same thing with radio in the 1950s. When I listened to "Journey into Space" I always sat close to my Mum because my young imagination used to run wild.

[billd766]

2 hours ago, Albaby said:

Read everynight. sometimes in print, the rest of the time Kindle  app on android tablet.Thank God for Amazon. I can read anywhere in the world.

My main library is on my computer and I download about 30 books at a time to my tablet. If I don't like a book I can just delete it and it costs me nothing.

 

In my master library of sorted books I have over 4,xxx authors with anything from 1 to over 50 book titles. Many I will never read such as Sci Fi, Dr Who, Star Trek, Star wars and cookery books.

[zzaa09]

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I wonder if people that grew up with tv were able to develop an imagination to the same extent that those of us that grew up without tv did.

I notice that when I watch tv my brain switches off to an extent. IMO if we don't use our brain much it isn't going to work as well.

I believe a more appropriate and comparative analogy might be of those who grew up [or generations that integrated into] dependent on varied mobile devices, which have proved to be much more hypnotic and distracting than television might promise to be. 

[talahtnut]

9 hours ago, billd766 said:

It was the same thing with radio in the 1950s. When I listened to "Journey into Space" I always sat close to my Mum because my young imagination used to run wild.

Yes indeed Journey Into Space seemed so awesomely realistic and scary,

but compulsory listening, as was the Goon Show, which must have stangely

affected my mind, and it seems, the world, permanantly.

[thaibeachlovers]

10 hours ago, billd766 said:

It was the same thing with radio in the 1950s. When I listened to "Journey into Space" I always sat close to my Mum because my young imagination used to run wild.

Don't remember the story, but I remember that we used to listen to that series. I do remember the intro.

[thaibeachlovers]

53 minutes ago, talahtnut said:

Yes indeed Journey Into Space seemed so awesomely realistic and scary,

but compulsory listening, as was the Goon Show, which must have stangely

affected my mind, and it seems, the world, permanantly.

I must have got my love for the Goon Show from my father, who loved it very much.

[nausea]

Dead? Not completely. Re-read The Plague by Albert Camus; seemed apposite. Was a voracious reader of novels in my youth. More into movies now. Put that down to how easy movies are to access these days. And many movies are virgin territory for me, as opposed to a lot of novels. Pretty sure if I was an unread callow youth I'd be reading novels big time, burning through the classics. I must say, the amount of stuff, including novels and movies, you can get for free online is quite remarkable to me. I mean, we had the local library, but there's really no comparison.

[cmarshall]

On 9/6/2021 at 6:59 PM, Fat is a type of crazy said:

To be honest the novel is a bit dead to me. In my teens and twenties I read books constantly. Like romantic and light British novels by Iris Murdoch, Kingsley Amis, Daphne Du Maurier, Evelyn Waugh, P J Wodehouse and the like. Also modern American literature, Tom Wolfe, Jay McInerney etc. Throw in a Dosteovsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy and a Kafka.

Ayn Rand books changed my life though they are a bit extreme. She turned me from a lazy left leaning person to a bit more centrist with her right wing economics. Albert Camus left a big impression with his notions of living in the moment. 

Then I stopped reading. Just had enough. Not sure why. 

Catholic tastes have their limit.  Ayn Rand was a crackpot.

[Fat is a type of crazy]

3 hours ago, cmarshall said:

Catholic tastes have their limit.  Ayn Rand was a crackpot.

Sometimes it's good to read someone with a different and extreme opinion. You may dismiss most of it but be left with some sense that good things and ideas on how to live, can come from far and wide, on the right and the left. I haven't picked up The Fountainhead since 1992 or so, but her story of a young architect, wanting to build something new and unique not based on concessions to City Hall, or old ideas, was not crackpot at all in my opinion.  

[cmarshall]

56 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

Sometimes it's good to read someone with a different and extreme opinion. You may dismiss most of it but be left with some sense that good things and ideas on how to live, can come from far and wide, on the right and the left. I haven't picked up The Fountainhead since 1992 or so, but her story of a young architect, wanting to build something new and unique not based on concessions to City Hall, or old ideas, was not crackpot at all in my opinion.  

Did you enjoy "Mein Kampf?"  Ayn Rand is simple-minded thinker and an extraordinarily tedious writer, a lot like you-know-who as a matter of fact.  Rand's Russian family lost its wealth in the Bolshevik Revolution which fueled the lifelong grievance that underlay her "philosophy."  It's the kind black-and-white false dichotomies that are of interest chiefly to teenagers and right-wingers.

[mahtin]

On 9/6/2021 at 3:42 PM, lordblackader said:

Hear you on a smaller device but you don't have to actually use a Kindle to access the Kindle Unlimited service. I've got a cheap Chinese Android tablet, 10.5-inches with the Kindle app installed and its just the right size.  

Had a cheap chinese 10.5 tablet, but found that too big and unwieldy in bed. Flipping Chinese won't let you root them, so when it got bricked I got the 8 inch Fire (which is not a Kindle). Amazon won't let you root either, but there's a great Fire Toolbox that lets you strip out most of the A-<deleted>. Don't use the Kindle app. Koreader is my choice. Any Android reader app will run on a Fire.

[Fat is a type of crazy]

2 hours ago, cmarshall said:

Did you enjoy "Mein Kampf?"  Ayn Rand is simple-minded thinker and an extraordinarily tedious writer, a lot like you-know-who as a matter of fact.  Rand's Russian family lost its wealth in the Bolshevik Revolution which fueled the lifelong grievance that underlay her "philosophy."  It's the kind black-and-white false dichotomies that are of interest chiefly to teenagers and right-wingers.

I feel like this is a case where you are basing this on what you have read about her rather than the book itself. I read it pre Google when you could give books a go with no preconceptions.

Right wing economics i.e. freedom of markets  - yes. Right wing in the Hitler sense - silly. 

The book showed no preconceived notions of any race or religion, she was an athiest , and believed in total freedom of people and the the markets.

They made a big Hollywood movie of the book in the late 40's staring Gary Cooper. 

She is loved by millions of Americans including republicans, libertarians, entrepeneurs and architects.

I am talking the Republicans of the past, that are appalling in their own way, but nothing  like the motley lot that go by that name today.

As I said,  I read it at about 26, when politics was far from my mind. I think it helped me to confirm that I am a bit to the left, but less than before,  by reading a book that talked about the benefits of right wing thinking and the free market. 

There's an interesting story how I came upon it. In the Sydney upmarket suburb  of Darlinghurst there was a shop that sold one of everything in the 90's - one really well made brief case, one beautifully designed piece of furniture, etc and one book - that book was The Fountainhead.

6 million books sold. I googled that. I am sure if I googled more I might find some bad things you talk of but to compare her to Hitler is silly.