Rating: 
Summary: The True Exaltation Of Man
Review: I agree with those people, such as John, David, and Stephen, who realize that this book is a truly noble effort. I can say with all my heart that this is THE best book I have ever read. It is a sparkling jewel in the rock pile of philosophical literature. To the narrow-minded, this is a book about a railroad. To the deeper people, it is abook about man as he should be. In The Fountainhead, there was Howard Roark as an example. In Atlas Shrugged, there is John Galt, and also 2 or 3 other people who stand out as the ideal for all mankind. There is not enough one can say about this book. If Ayn Rand was taught in high school or college, the human condition would be very different. I salute you, the people who truly understand this book and share Ayn's ideal for mankind.
Rating:
Summary: Love it or hate it!
Review: Ayn may not be a literary genius, but her ideas have genuine merit. Many of her characters are paralleled in the conservatives of today who are tired of being dragged down by close minded bureaucrats who want only power and money and misuse their authority to get it rather than do the job they were put in place to do. I've read most of the reviews just to get a feel for the opinions of others who have also read this book. If you are a socialist liberal democrat (or just a democrat since they are the same) you will hate this book! It is not for those who think that society owes them a handout when they have not earned it themselves! On the otherhand, if you feel that you should achieve for the sake of doing your best at something (rather than being a parasite off of those who are the best) and that you deserve to the reap the rewards for your achievements with limited government intervention or extortion in the form of taxes, fees, and regulations; then you will love this book. One interesting parallel to the real world... conservatives, entrepreneurs, achievers, earners, etc. can survive without liberal parasites continually waiting for handouts. But the reverse is not true.
Rating:
Summary: Rand Teaches Economics
Review: When we first started reading Atlas Shrugged for my Economics class I thought the book was too long and too boring. But now that I see Dagny fighting to save Taggart Transcontinental and the conflicts between her and John Galt, I had come to like economics and understand it even clearer. Rand's writing style may be a little grandiloquent but the points she makes about society and how people are punished for their virtues makes me personally want to fight harder for the things I want. I may not agree with Rand's views on everything but if people can learn to work hard and work together then maybe society can work a little better.
Rating: 
Summary: Atlas barfs
Review: This book was so immature - so teenage angst ridden it doesn't deserve much time to review.The theme "Nobody appreciates how wonderful I am so they can all go to hell". It resonates with some people I guess - who never made a big success and want to blame other people for it. You are the architect of your destiny - if people drag you down then move on and find people who help you - you don't have to move to an electrostatic bubble in the midwest populated by super-geniuses.
Rating:
Summary: A rational review.
Review: Before reading Atlas Shrugged in college, I often wondered why people cult to Ayn Rand, just as I have wondered why people have blind-faith in their various ingrained religions. Often they themselves cannot explain to me specifically why their heroes are righteous - at least they cannot explain it to me rationally. But then who can explain such magnificent things? My personal take on Rand is that she alone hits a base cord in the readers who understand the reverence that must be given to those minds who have build unbelievably supreme and unfathomably complex manmade systems in our modern world. Although Rand's time spoke to continental trains, and skyscrapers, you can't help but superimpose more modern and wondrous inventions. There are more and more things of amazement that are being created that simply can't be comprehended by most, yet paramount to the human condition is that the unknown must be reconciled! To understand Rand's thought is a must, but to read her longwinded, overly melodramatic, and dare I say... second-rate... writing is optional. But I have yet to find other writers who "get it" like she does. I suspect they don't exist, and that's why so many people are still parked in Rand's camp. The most succinct thing I have read about Ayn Rand's writing was that she is "a man-lover". Religions do not approve of putting mere man at the helm. They would rather attribute all things to supernatural origins. Ayn's thoughts are, and have been, at the forefront of this clash between mysticism and realism. As we continue to move from a "natural" to a more human influenced world, her thought will only get more and more important as the struggle toward a rational society continues.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: While Ayn Rand's philosophy has been all but ignored by the mainstream press, her books keep on flying off the shelves. Atlas Shrugged is a testament as to why. Rand's view on man's nature is compact, well-written, and logical, and the extension to economics is flawless. Her philosophy's only problem, which was not brought up in this book and therefore doesn't affect the rating, is the allowance in honest errors in reason, as opposed to a conscious effort to make mistakes. But, all in all, probably the best book I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Remembering how to think again
Review: "For twelve years you have been asking: Who is John Galt. This is John Galt speaking. I am the man who loves his life. I am the man who does not sacrifice his love or his values. I am the man who has deprived you of victims and has thus destroyed your world, and if you wish to know why you are perishing-you who dread knowledge-I am the man who will now tell you." Not very awe-inspiring, right? I mean, who wants somebody pushing all of their beliefs about God, about a good life, about what is virtuous and sacred in front of an oncoming train and pulverizing them into an indistinguishable evil that towers over the world and makes what is good wrong? What is wrong with the people who love this book? It's like it is their Bible. A revelation. An achievement limitless in magnitude, if only everybody understood. It is a book for dreamers, the "new intellectual." And I salute those dreamers. The books of Ayn Rand are very incompatible with the views of society as a whole. Even the term itself. But for the free mind, the mind untarnished by the binding views of religion, by society, and by a limited ambition, this book can be a roadmap to success in life. Her two most-famous books, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, are the two of the best books I have read so far in my life. And I have read most of the classics, and most of the great philosophers. Her views are uncompromising. Her stories are brilliant. And above all she is a compassionate person, by a much truer form of the definition. I fear, though, it is much too late. A noble effort, Miss Rand. Thank you for letting me realize what was blurred.
Rating:
Summary: This is solid gold
Review: A hundred years from now people will still be talking and writing about Ayn Rand's work. It will be a measuring stick against which other works will be compared. If you wish to know the modern Prometheus - it is here, in these pages. Rest assured Rand was no communist. Anyone who would claim such is an ignorant fool. Nor was she devoid of qualities that would make her less than human - being human, being a rational, thinking, living human was the concern. Assuming you are capable of such use of your mind - the moment that you read this you will understand. And John Galt will be nothing to fear.
Rating:
Summary: Money is not the root of evil closed minds are!
Review: Bob Wallace, keep it up old boy - your general meandering on this book will soon equal the verbiage contained in it. 12 reviews just by you. This book provokes thought and gives passion to the thinker. Read to expand our minds and test the policies of society that have become stagnate. This book is loved by teenagers because they are still free thinkers that are not afraid of believing in themselves and your their abilities. Do not let the Bob Wallaces of the world close your mind to what this book can offer you.
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Summary: The Seed of Everything Wrong
Review: I find it amusing that most of the people that I know who cherish this book also consider themselves Christians. The central message of this book is just the opposite of "Love Thy Neighbor." If you are already very selfish and in need of a long, Russian-style novel to justify it to yourself, this is your book.
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