Rating: 
Summary: Baffling, challenging, astounding, invigorating, ETC.
Review: No ordinary methods of review can possibly describe the purpose of this novel. I choose to write this review while I am still immersed in the text, only because I fear that if I attempt to write about it after I am finished with it, I will lose the impression of the force that this novel exerts on my mind with every moment of each passing day. While reading this novel, I continually struggle with a small voice in the back of my head that tells me I am missing something. There are sentences in the book that are burned into my mind, and there are ideas that are so eloquently expressed that they name some unknown desire that has been driving me for years. There are characters in this novel that I love with a love that Ayn Rand puts into words. There are also characters that I despise, and she names that feeling of disgust again and again. Yet while I want to understand these characters, I struggle with other concepts. The best characters are driven and focused, and sometimes they are so driven that it seems they have forgotten compassion. They have not only forgotten compassion, but they hate the notion of it. I struggle with this. There are plenty of ugly characters that use compassion as a guise for doing cowardly things, but the strongest characters are self-motivated and have no desire to hide anything about themselves, including their desire to succeed. Yet I cannot tell if it is my own feeling or a socially imposed feeling that makes me wonder if there is any evil in being selfish. There is something that Ayn Rand is getting at here, and I won't name it. You (the reader of this review) must read the book for yourself and try to name it. But it comes down to the fact that there is something noble about doing honest work for your own desire. For me, this is one of those books that makes me think about things that I always think about, yet it twists them into something unrecognizable that I cannot ignore. Everyone should read this book. It is a dense and challenging novel, and this is exactly why I recommend that everyone read it. The way you respond to the novel will tell you a lot about yourself.
Rating:
Summary: a must-read!
Review: don't be daunted by the number of pages. ayn rand is an excellent writer who will keep you glued to the book from page 1 to 1000+. each character is so well shaped and developed -- the details are remarkable. this book will probably change the way you look at and think about the world. it did for me.
Rating:
Summary: Liberation in paperback.
Review: A study comissioned by the Library of Congress cited this book as the most influential book - second only to the bible - in American history. The secret is that "Atlas Shrugged" succeeds where the bible can only aspire: it reveals a worldview that does not require faith; allowing you to achieve freedom from struggle. I promise, you *will* feel the triumph."Atlas Shrugged" can be seen as a vehicle for the illustration of her philosophy, objectivisim. As far as dramatic tension goes, it can drag for some people in the first 400 or so pages, but then it begins to spiral upward into a breathtaking climax in the form of John Galt's(the male protagonist) monologue. In this monologue, the structure of the book as a verhicle for her philosophy's expostulation becomes evident and her whole philosophy is summarized. Sounds a bit boring right? Actually, if you end up being able to find any flaw with her philosophy, it will mean that you haven't read it closely enough or are tripping up on your own assumptions. Why is her philosophy so important? Simply because it gives you a failsafe way of creating an unflawed worldview - and the motivation and confidence to undertake its creation/discovery. She further lays the groundwork for your success by bequeathing you with a wealth of observations, insights, and distinctions and by teaching you how to avoid "tricks", logical fallacies, and mistaken fundamental assumptions. An immaculate worldview does more than remove all the kinks in your life, it provides you with an everpresent and pervasive sublimity of feeling(imagine no tension ever, add a supreme sense of well-being.) Morever, it opens up your horizions to unimagined new experiences.This I learned thanks to Any Rand. Not by her telling me, but by her enabling me to learn it first hand. This book alone won't do it, but if you read her various books in the right order they will cumulatively do much to pull off the curtain that hangs over your world. "Atlas Shrugged" is the breakthrough book, however. If you want the complete Ayn Rand education, start with "The Fountainhead", move on to "Atlas Shrugged"(the crux), and use her philosophy books to clarify everything that she begins to teach you in her fiction. If you don't have time for all this, either make the time or just read "Atlas Shrugged". I suggest that you make arrangements to read it in as short a time frame as possible, so you are able to pull the concepts together. Push through the "slow" part and it becomes a pageturner. The "money" section of the book is in the last 200 pages, but you have to read the rest to understand it. Besides her philosophy being astute, her writing is excellent. As I mentioned before, some people believe that the structure of tension lacks at first in "Atlas Shrugged", because she focuses on building characters and the setting, but this meticulousness is cashed in on in the second half of the book. The scope of ambition of her plot - and its excution - is unmatched in literature. Her descriptions and characterizations are as sharp as any author out there(though intentionally not as nuanced) and her book is able to convey a presence or feel that is unrealized by all but the greatest names in writing. She is a master. I've been averaging about 5 books a week for about 25 years, and work hard to find and read all the best authors. No book has even come close to teaching me what this book has. "Atlas Shrugged" is a profoundly satisfying read. I hope you enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Who is John Galt?
Review: I am not the type of person you would expect to read this book; I'm a spoiled sixteen-year-old and the only books I own are the Harry Potter series. And yet I willed myself to finish this novel, and by the very last page, even I could see how brilliant it was. Atlas Shrugged has been ranked as the second most influential book ever written (The Bible is first). Numerous politicians have cited it as an inspiration for them. Obviously Rand did something right. So what if it's not a clear or accurate depiction of America. So what if the characters aren't always likeable. And so what if Rand banters about philosophy. If you actually take the time to digest this novel, it can change your life.
Rating: 
Summary: Sick, superficial, & absolutist (& that's being nice!)
Review: What an awful book! A thousand plus pages of cardboard characters who are either all-good or all-bad, a simplistic ideology that, I think, reflects her native Russia a hell of a lot better than the US, where it's set. This IS the land of you work hard you get more. Are we that starved for contrarian ideas that we'll embrace anything? If you want a philosophical justification for not caring about your fellow man, & are simple-minded, this book is for you. Me personally, I'll take compassion any old day. I mean, we're supposed to feel sorry for American industrialists? Since when are they persecuted here? (poor Mr Rockefeller! Oh, Mr. Gates, how horribly you're treated in this country!) Give me a freakin break!
Rating: 
Summary: A European perspective:Compare Ayn Rand with Charles Dickens
Review: Yes I understand Ayn Rand's ideas: he who works harder should earn more than the lazybones - and that this necessary for an efficient economy. Yes, I also believe freedom and the dignity of the individual to be more important than the repressive, suffocating collectivism that you can find in communist or in islamic societies. In so far, Ayn Rand is right. On the other hand this radical egoism Ayn Rand propagates makes me shiver sometimes. I always have to think about the "Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens and the main character of this story, Ebenezer Scrooge when reading Ayn Rand's philosophical ideas. So this is my suggestion to all objectivists: Read "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens every christmas and think about what Ebenezer Scrooge was shown by the three ghosts, the ghost of the past, the ghost of the present and the ghost of the future, in order not to become too fanatical in the philosophy of objectivism.
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Summary: ATLAS SHRUGGED: Novel or Philosophy?
Review: In the America of ATLAS SHRUGGED, Ayn Rand portrays a society that is as starkly one-dimensional as any that has been penned. To her, people, institutions, economic systems, and carefully worked out values are purposefully depicted as showing a society designed to highlight a personal ethos that places a premium on rugged individualism, laissez-faire capitalism, guided selfishness, personal happiness, and an unwavering contempt for anyone who opposes her core beliefs. If Rand's heroes personify her often repeated beliefs that American prosperity rests on the mythical shoulders of Atlas, then it is money that functions as the steroids of her philosophical body building. What complicates the extent to which the acquisition and possession of money separates her heroes from her villains is the troublesome issue as to the classification of the novel. Is ATLAS SHRUGGED a novel wrapped around a philosophy or is it the reverse? This is no small matter, since the reader's perception of and reaction to it is the means by which that reader can assess exactly how money shapes the reader's sense of Rand's entire mode of thought. Not all readers are willing to slog through the more than a thousand pages of prose that describe both hero and villain in terms not found outside comic books. Unless readers make a determined effort to separate their innate sense of their own realism from the novel's heavy-handed use of allegorical and metaphorical stick-figures, then the relevant question of the function of money is made moot. As I was reading ATLAS SHRUGGED, I had to continually remind myself not to straddle this metaphysical fence. I assumed that Rand did not intend her readers to see her titular hero John Galt as a real life fully-fleshed man, but she far more likely intended Galt as an absolute symbol of individualism that ordinary humans could grope for, but never quite grasp. Yet, I saw that for Rand, it was crucial that her readers try for betterment even if they failed in the attempt. The heroes and villains of ATLAS SHRUGGED both value money, but it is not the physical properties of the money that distinguish the hero from the villain, but rather in how and for what purpose that money was acquired. Generally, to qualify as a Randian hero, that character has to understand that there is no mystical world beyond this one and that pure reason is the means to apprehend it. Individuals have to be free from the taint of government handout or stifling restriction. Further, the pursuit of personal happiness is mutually exclusive with both sacrifice and altruism for others. The heroes--John Galt, Ragnar Danneskjold, Hank Rearden, and Dagny Taggart--all typify to one extent or another this credo. The villains--Robert Stadler, Floyd Ferris, Wesley Mouch, and James Taggart--are the heroes' antithesis. The heroes of ATLAS SHRUGGED tend to view wealth as that which was earned solely by the ability and effort of the earner. If that wealth were stolen, leached, or mooched, then these heroes would refuse to accept it as legitimately earned. Ragnar Danneskjold is one such hero who meets Hank Rearden to tell him that he wishes to return some gold that he had pirated earlier and now seeks to return it to its original owner. In effect, Danneskjold wishes to be a 'reverse Robin Hood.' The surprising part is that Rand makes clear her antipathy toward altruism and self-sacrifice toward others whom Rand sees as parasites sucking the vitality out of her genuine heroes. When Danneskjold says that he wishes to kill a man long dead (Robin Hood), he emphasizes that the world is better off with more of the powerful and vital mighty and fewer of the parasitic masses that occupy the rest of the planet. The mysterious John Galt is the central figure of the book. It is his name which is bandied about in the often asked: 'Who is John Galt?' It is his elusive philosophy which permeates throughout. And it falls to him to speak Rand's sixty page closing screed about the need for society to have a rugged individual running things. This long and pontificating speech is the rhetorical symbol for the novel itself: rambling, excessive, pedantic, and more than a bit boring. The proper function of money for the Right Thinking Man is the same as for anything else of that man. Honest clear thinking, whether it results in financial profit, (a certainty for Rand) is to be favored over taking or leaching the hard-won results of the efforts of that Right Thinking Man. At the end of his long speech, Galt is offered the chance to be the absolute dictator of the world--provided that his decisions meet the approval of the very parasites who stole his wealth and power in the first place. When Rand closes the novel with, 'He raised his hand and over the desolate earth he traced in space the sign of the dollar,' she notes that for Galt and through her, both value the free and unfettered symbol of the dollar over the actual and misused power of it. Clearly, then, the form and function of money in ATLAS SHRUGGED is itself a function of whether one sees the work as a novelized philosophy or a philosophized novel.
Rating: 
Summary: A new way to see the world
Review: This book is one of the best works of literature I have ever read! Not because the story is all that great, at times, like Galts' 100 or so pages radio address, it can be boring and redundant. However, this book got me thinking about life and existance. This book gave me what I needed to challenge the naysayers of free enterprise. Although the characters and plot are not realistic and I doubt could be (ie most characters are the best in their proffesion and never seem capable of failure), this does not change the fundamental ideas Ms. Rand expresses. Ms. Rand puts forth the concept that every individual can have an opinion, idea, etc and it is valid as long as it is not forced onto others. In fact in her introduction to the book she states the "immorality" of imposing ones will onto another by guilt, shame, etc. Although I would not use such a strong word to describe this I agree with the idea itself. This book has two main aspects, which are complementary: philosophy and empowerment.
Philosophy in the sense of her idea that a contradiction is impossible and one must check the premise of the idea in order to rectify it.
Empowerment in the sense that any person can achieve by working hard and using thier mind. Basically a peson who challenges others ideas before exepting them as valid.
I support the books pro-capitalistic ideal. The ideal that skill, hard work, intelligence, etc should be honored. I also agree with Ms. Rand's statements regarding the monetary reward due to those who invent and create is thier property not to be given out to others ie "I work therefore I earn" not "I work and give away my earnings to somebody who 'needs' my money".
I disagree with several of Ms. Rands ideas, nonetheless. For instance she doesn't bring up the ideas of workers compensation (injury compensation), child labor laws, and minimum wage. Ideas which I think are crucially imortant in todays world. Before workers compensation 2000 railway workers would be killed annually! And this was just in the railway industry! People worked 14 hour days and still did not have enought to eat. Lassez faire capitalism would not solve these ills. Also her atheistic condescention and the bashing the idea of God is wrong, in my opinion of course. Ignoring this unnecassary exclusion of the religious amonst us, like myself, the book is inspiring.
To conclude: Ayn Rands philosophy is a bit haughty and at times unjust. But she does bring the reader to an understanding of his own power over his own life.
A great book for someone who is skeptical, annalitical, and wants to think.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece of both fiction and philosophy
Review: It doesn't matter how you look at it - as a piece of literature or as a philosophy on life - either way it is truly a work of art. No wonder this book has been talked about for decades. I had never read such a lengthy novel before (and my only qualm with the book is that it truly could have been shorter without losing any impact) but I was incredibly glad I did read this one by the time I was finished. The protagonist is quite inspirational on many levels. Overcoming incredible odds in her job, her family, her life in general. The theme of the story has truth that will never get old or outdated. Pick up this book and stay with it through the end. It's amazing, and you will be so glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: A large and imposing slice of ham
Review: This novel is at its best when asserting the revolutionary power of rebellion, which it does with ringing authority about every eighty-two pages. In between, the book seems to get heavier and heavier with every page you turn, in ironic symmetry with the title (and the cover art). Lifting the book over your head is a terrible struggle, but it's worth it if you have done some working out, and have had a few of those carbo-loading carrot-and-celery drinks. Reading this book at the beach can lead to very deep sunburn, if you do it in one sitting, although if you defy convention and assert the primacy of your individuality in order to get the sunburn, then it's OK. Even if nobody's looking. Real Ayn Rand fans know to look for the secret messages embedded in the text every fortieth page (starting with page 6). If you gather together these messages and decode them properly, they reveal some amazing insights of Objectivist thinking, and likewise form a much more exciting novel than "Atlas Shrugged." For all its charms, though, I still find this novel less readable than Wittgenstein's "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus."
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