Rating: Summary: BEST book I ever read Review: Twelve years after having read "Atlas Shrugged" for the first time, I still believe it is the best book I'll ever find. I highly recommend it: - If you enjoy looking up to magnificent heroes, and think of literature as a means of expressing the very best of mankind; - If you hunger for outstanding entertainment that will capture your intellect and your emotions to the point where you'll wish you could finish reading it in one sitting, and simultaneously will wish it would never end; - If you sometimes hunger for intelligent, myth-shattering ideas that will deeply question your own, and end up reshaping your philosophy of life; - If you feel compelled to defend capitalism and individualism, but sometimes find that you need a stronger moral basis to support both; - Heck, even if you're anti-capitalism,and anti-individualism, you'll find (as some of the people who have posted negative reviews about the book here will testify) it is difficult to experience "Atlas Shrugged" without being stirred, shaken, awakened and/or affected by it in some way. In short, if you read a book hoping you will be a different person when you're done, DON'T miss it!
Rating: Summary: 5-stars = producer, 1-star = looter. Review: I highly recommend this book for anyone who believes in the power of the individual. Ayn Rand paints socialism in vivid color. The looters of the world feel a sense of entitlement, they believe they are "owed" the hard work of others.
Rating: Summary: Extremely few people truly understand this book. I do. Review: You see, the major point of the book is nothing specific. It doesn't tell you how to live your life. It gives some advice, but this is just to help explain the major point. Don't criticize the advice; that is pointless and stupid. The point of the book is this: Rationality and emotions are not opposites. They work together to create a consciousness. People feel emotional pain because there is a contradiction somewhere in their logic. This is the greatest revelation I have received from the book. I have found the key to peace. If you fail to grasp this point perhaps you need to read Ayn Rand's Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.
Rating: Summary: Excellent, but... Review: This book has many great points. Most parts of it are very readable, and it does indeed force you to look at our society in a different way. However, there are parts of it which are exceeding long, including one certain stretch of dialogue/address that stretches on for massive amounts of pages. Get through that however, and you may well find you enjoy the book!
Rating: Summary: Intellectualy Bankrupt Review: Anyone can write a fictional book in which his or her worldview is triumphant and everyone who disagrees with it is a blithering incompetent. Using a work of fiction to try to justify one's beliefs in the way Rand does here is essentially cowardly, especially in the lopsided way she does it (Galt's hamburger's are the best, his dollar sign cigarettes are the best, etc.). Additionally, the reader does not need to be pummelled with page after page of diatribes to get the point - the book could be about one-third the length.
Rating: Summary: The best book of modern literature Review: I have read only a few (around 40) classic pieces of literature. My knowledge is limited because I am only seventeen. I don't know why I first picked up the Fountainhead; I just felt compelled to read something different. I couldn't put it down. After I finished it, I tried reading something else, but nothing seemed good any more. It then dawned on me that I would have to read the only book ever published that's better than the Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged. It took awhile for me to get really into the story.. about 300 pages, but when I did.. I read it very quickly. My advice: even if you are a teenager, you can still appreciate this novel. It does not matter how old you are.
Rating: Summary: A towering novel, one of the best ever Review: The protagonist in "The Triumph and the Glory" , which I recently ordered from amazon and just finished, reminded me of Ayn Rand's memorable hero of "Atlas Shrugged", so I found my old copy of it and read it again. At least ten years have passed since I read it in college, so it was kind of a new experience again, one which I greatly enjoyed.
Rating: Summary: The most important novel of the 20th Century Review: A recent survey by the Library of Congress found "Atlas Shrugged" second only to the Bible as the book that most influenced the lives of American readers. By this standard, it is arguably the most important novel of the 20th century. Rand projects a a world of reason, individualism, and freedom that stands in stark contrast to today's cultures of mysticism, collectivism, and tyranny. If mankind is to survive, it will be partly thanks to this book.
Rating: Summary: Forces you look at the world as you may never have seen it. Review: Atlas Shrugged is a display of the philosophy of objectivism at work. It's not just philosophy but of it's application. It demonstrates the power and virtue and the true greatness of the human mind.
Rating: Summary: The most thought-provoking book I've read. Review: Ayn Rand's message is not subtle and she does not mince words, yet the novel is elegantly written with a passion and idealism that would seem stilted if there were not so much substance to those words. What is the meaning of life? Who do you live for? Who SHOULD you live for? Why? These are the questions that Rand attempts to answer (for whom is your choice), using (1) heavy-handed but logical arguments, and (2) the wonderfully flawed, yet perfectly human characters who encounter problems and dilemmas very similar (too similar?) to those found today. Reason, morality, and integrity are the true heroes of this novel, no faith required, no religion necessary. In a society where relativism and mysticism are unconsciously accepted tenets of so many people values, this novel provides and ARGUES (a lost art these days ...but I digress) another point of view. For those (such as myself) religiously inclined, Rand comes even more highly recommended, for I have found that reason and faith are not mutually exclusive concepts, and reconciling the two has led me at least to a more complete philosophy of life, where morality is guided by my own reason and principles, not by faith or the opinions of others. Perhaps this book will start you down the same road and the journey for you will be similarly rewarding. And if for no other reason, read it so you understand greedy capitalists :)
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