Rating: 
Summary: Biggest book I ever read
Review: This book is HUGE! It's just amazing how HUGE it is!And what's even more amazing is that it just keeps getting stupider and stupider ALL THE WAY TO THE END. You'd think that a book this HUGE could only get SO stupid, and then sort of level off and stay that stupid all the way to the end. But no -- this book just keeps getting MORE AND MORE STUPID! I like stupid books, so I congratulate Ayn Rand on her marvelous achievement! A very HUGE book that not only GETS STUPID AND STAYS STUPID, but gets INCREASINGLY STUPIDER throughout EVEN THOUGH IT'S HUGE! Amazing! "In the air he traced the sign of the dollar." Har har! If she'd only spent one more page on it, so that I could have seen how it could possibly have gotten any MORE stupid! But I guess she was pretty much all stupided out by the time she got to page 1024.
Rating:
Summary: thought provoking novel that hits a lot of buttons.
Review: I have read this book no less than five times.While Rand and I differ on our ideas of a higher power,I admire her courage to put into words what most productive,self-driven people think every day as they drive to work.What would happen if all the productive,thinking people of the world were to simply...disappear,leaving the world to be governed by mediocre bureaucrats?This book does a great job of illustrating just that.The first time I read this book,it almost killed me,due to the length,and I didn't get a lot out of it.Later,an older and wiser me was able to glean much from the subtle ideas portrayed here.I won't say this book changed my life,because I was a card carrying Libertarian long before I grasped it's meaning,but it helped mold and reinforce ideas I already held.Read it with an open mind,and take what you can from this though-provoking prose.
Rating:
Summary: thought provoking novel that hits a lot of buttons.
Review: I have read this book no less than five times. While Rand and I differ on our ideas of a higher power, I admire her courage to put into words what most productive, self-driven people think every day as they drive to work. What would happen if all the productive, thinking people of the world were to simply...disappear, leaving the world to be governed by mediocre bureaucrats? This book does a great job of illustrating just that. The first time I read this book,it almost killed me, due to the length, and I didn't get a lot out of it. Later, an older and wiser me was able to glean much from the subtle ideas portrayed here. I won't say this book changed my life, because I was a card carrying Libertarian long before I grasped its meaning, but it helped mold and reinforce ideas I already held. Read it with an open mind, and take what you can from this thought-provoking prose.
Rating:
Summary: Best book I ever read
Review: Atlas Shrugged is really a one-of-a-kind book. It has everything in it from action to mystery to love to philosophy. It really makes one stop and think and offers many enlightening ideas not commonly found elsewhere. Unfortunately, some people treat Atlas Shrugged the way the looters treated the 20th Century Motor Company in the book. That is, they grab what they quickly see and leave behind the greatest value. I encourage you to read this book, and try to discover the greatest value.
Rating:
Summary: Behind the Mask
Review: I've read the book more times than I have fingers, literally. Each time, I see a different side. I have read some of the critiques on this place. One thing. If you had to read this, then that was for your grade, so in that, you got paid for your time. If you bought this and then decided it was too long, whose fault is that for not skimming the book, but being TOO LAZY to read but the back cover? YES, it IS a bit unrealistic, but that is to prove a point. Animal Farm proves a point too, but I doubt pigs talk. Yeah. Animal Farm is shorter, but the points proven in Animal Farm and in in Atlas Shrugged are very, very different, and it would take a fool to replace one with the other. Read both. Don't substitute out of laziness. I personally found this book to be very good. I read the first book, Fountainhead, because I was bored to death, and the book was thick, so I took it up. I loved it. I have read that book I don't know how many times, and I still love it. Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are as holy to myself as the Bible is to some, perhaps more so. It doesn't say "oh, everyone's a bunch of slackers"...but that there ARE slackers, and it makes no sense to feed the slackers by giving them your corpse so they can dance and laugh over your dead body while breeding a million more slackers to kill off all the producers and crash the world. For those that do not see why generations should be allowed to leech off of welfare when they are perfectly capable of helping themselves and don't bother trying to get a job....for THOSE people, THIS IS THE BOOK. The book that puts those ideas, those values into words. The book that will set you free, by telling you the words for the emotions and thoughts that you always had but just didn't know how to express. This is the book of dreams. For those that like sitting on your butts and eating while your neighbor works to pay for what you eat, well, don't read this book, cause it'll probably [annoy] you off bigtime. Finally, you see, someone knows what's happening, and someone had the guts to put it down in writing.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, I hope everyone understands it.
Review: This is essential to any scholer of the objectivist philosophy.
Rating:
Summary: Towering 20th century accomplishment
Review: While I'm tempted to drop a star for the staggering length of the book (over 1000 pages total...a 100 page speech at the end...whew), I must remember the impact that this book had on me. Guaranteed to change any young socialist's mind about what morality is proper. A decent personal story, full of heroes who face odds and overcome them, and relentless villains who may unfortunately be your boss or your wife. Collectivism is exposed on every page as the morality of people who only wish to live so long as someone else is helping them do so. It is her philosphy in novel form. A young woman rairoad magnate and a steel producer attempt to swim the tide of rising collectivism by refusing to share gratis the discovery of a new type of steel that will save the railroad. Other steel producers and the railroad woman's own brother attempt to sell them out to government regulation so that everyone can have what they created. The heroes begin to realize that successful businesses are crumbling all around them, and cannot figure out why. Well, it's because an inventor has convinced the producers of the world to leave it temporarily, as the rest of humanity does not respect their work. The engines of humanity exhausted, what the collectivists have created comes to fruition-poverty and repression, as they know only how to coerce, not create. Thats the basic gist.
Rating:
Summary: Love It or Hate It
Review: For years, I was told that one would completely resonate with this book or be disgusted by it. As you can tell by the reviews, this is very true. I resisted reading this book for many many years, maybe because of the drama surrounding it. I read it a few months ago for the first time. Loved it. Not only that, I consider it one of the most important books I have read. It helped me make some very sucessful busniess decisions with a clear mind and conscious. And I found the story to absolutely riveting. I must say that I found the concepts related in this book more pertinent today than they were 50 years ago when it was written. People have more excuses today for lack of excellence than ever. The United States of American is becoming more socialist daily. All the redundancies and incompetencies that come with socialism have become a way of life. Most people are not aware of this as they have accepted it as the way things MUST be. Rand, without any subtlety states: Things do not have to be this way. They don't. The split of those that believe in creating excellence and those that believe they are entitled to the fruits of other's labor is growing still. It didn't happen as fast as Rand depicts, but it is happening just the same. I chose my side before reading Atlas Shrugged. The book was a welcome affirmation of that choice.
Rating: 
Summary: Dream on, Missy!!!
Review: I'll start off with positive aspects about this book: Very creative. OK, now for the negatives:
Ms. Rand's heros are these nabobs who know what's best for the rest of us.
All these rich, successful, intelligent "gods" of Rand's Atlantis are all beautiful people with trim bodies, golden hair, and are devoted to the greatness of mankind. I don't know what world Ms. Rand is living in, but the last time I looked at all the "movers" in society, they all looked like a bunch of mutants.
Bill Gates and Ross Perot hardly strike me as being "gods" to be admired. All this business about objectivism is VERY entertaining. Human nature in itself is SUBJECTIVE, not objective!
If it were objective, we would have solved all these social problems thousands of years ago. Finally at the end of the novel, these "gods" transform themselves from rich industrialists to a highly trained para-military SWAT team! What an imagination this lady has!
I should probably give this book 4 stars just for the laugh it gave me. Ms. Rand really needs to spend some time researching close quarters combat and the use of firearms. No, I'm not a liberal. I'm very conservative and quite frankly, very anti-union.
But I think Ms. Rand's philosophy has been embraced by too many uneducated people looking for a cheap hero and, in the process, has given the conservative a bad name. And as far as virtue goes, I suggest reading Victor Hugo's Les Miserables for any of those who are in search of this unattainable characteristic. May God have mercy on Ms. Rand's soul.
Rating: 
Summary: What do Ayn Rand and Sinclair Lewis have in common?
Review: And, who best inspires you to lead a life of purpose and conviction? Rand's epic mystery-cum-polemic is a "one of a kind" that mesmerizes, titillates and makes the blood boil and, ultimately, ends with a coterie of very gifted individuals going underground. Unlike Dagny Taggart, Lewis' equally appealing title character in "Arrowsmith" brushes up against mediocrity and sell-outs; and, like Hank Rearden, struggles with the issue of professional achievement in the context of family life. In the end, Arrowsmith takes a quieter path: consciously discarding the opportunities to compromise conviction for comfort, but working within the basic fabric of society. Which path - Dagny's or Martin's - is more noble? Which has more potential for helping to reform society? "Atlas Shrugged" is a monumental work, but, stylistically, a flawed one that careens toward the end down a path replete with sci-fi theatrics. "Arrowsmith" takes a more subtle approach, although Miss Rand's admirers would be correct to point out that she has framed the actions of her characters within a much wider political and philosophical context that demands of her heroes the actions they ultimately take. Read both novels, and reflect: Which approach - Dagny's or Martin's - would you likely choose should your property rights be threatened?
| 
