One of the best page turners I have ever read

books:


	• Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand Plume, 1999 - 1200 pages average customer review:based on 1541 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Must Read

After the Bible, this is the most important book you should read. I bought this book as a gift to send to two friends and have done so before.

With the current economic crisis it takes on a new meaning.

A hard to put down pulp

Atlas shrugged has the same issues the Moby Dick does. Under a thousand page novel, a wonderful 200-300 page novel is struggling to get out. The book is a page turner, hard to put down, but is weighed down by the illogical worship of money and power. The assumption that the best minds will always float to the top and that those who are rich are more virtuous destroys a wonderful pulpy thriller. If she had stuck with fiction and ignored philosophy, this would be a 5-star review.

I read this book in one night, skipping the speech at the end going to the next part. That speech, in its own right is a horrible piece of drek that should have been edited out by any right-thinking publisher.

Pros: Gripping, hard to put down, somehow motivates you to find out what happens next
Cons: 2-dimensional (or less) characters, simplistic plot, unnecessary length, stupid pseudo-philosophy.

Conclusion: Not bad for a flight across the US if you can stand the embarrassment of carrying it.

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One of the best page turners I have ever read

I had heard many references to Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged over the last few years and thought I would give it a try. Here are my thoughts:

The good: Though VERY long, this book is a page turner. The characters Rand introduces to us are rich (no pun intended) and well thought out. We come to feel greatly for several of them, even those who are not introduced until later in the book. Rand makes the case for her economic and cultural philosophy through parable, which in my opinion is the best way to reach the masses. The story is clearly meant for discussion and Rand makes her point clearly.

The not so good: As mentioned above, the book is long. The same story could have been presented in maybe half the pages. The speech toward the end which takes up 60 pages is too verbose and could have been said in maybe 10 pages or even less. I found myself scanning through this part. I would have preferred some of the "villains" in the story to be less of a caricature of the socialist tendencies in our society, though it may have been necessary for them to be this way for the book to be as satirical as it is. Somewhere around the middle of the book, the story strays from the realistic to the realm of science fiction. I found myself liking the first half better.

In short, this is a book everyone should read, even if for the entertainment value. I don't agree 100% with all of Rand's "Objectivism" philosophy, most notably on the concept of charitable giving, but as an economic screed there is quite a bit of wisdom in it. There are some important lessons to learn from Atlas Shrugged and the world would be a better place if we learned them.

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