Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.66 You Save: $15.34 (61%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $7.69 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Atlas Shrugged
Book Review: #1 Absolutely the best book ever penned!
Summary: 5 Stars
The reason why some people don't totally get Ayn Rand's ideas at first read of atlas shrugged is because they are unprecedented. Most people have really no preparatory knowledge and what we do have, is usually incorrect. We have been so thoroughly conditioned not to think and to prevent thinking all together. Further, to let all manner of distraction in to prevent thought, to the point that it is virtually impossible to get it all at first pass and most people get very little even though very impactful then leave it at that and never fully understand!
The classical Liberals, the original capitalists or what most people are waking up to today lost it all to the socialists because they were missing something...the only reason we are even waking up today is because of one person, Ayn Rand. She single handedly sparked the world wide freedom movement of today because she firmly placed in the hands of what was left of the entire freedom movement which was literally under 100 people in the 1950s, the morality of capitalism! The real torch of freedom almost went out for ever!
Ayn Rand explained with crystalline clarity why capitalism not only worked and socialism did not but why it was the only fair, just, and moral system on the planet to distribute wealth and the only one that can create it! Ayn Rand placed it in terms of the reality that it was...Freedom or Slavery. How dare you make a slave of me (Tax and Regulate) no matter what use, you thieves make of the stolen loot!
Atlas Shrugged is the magnum opus of all magnum opuses. "The Astounding story of a man who said he would stop the motor of the world...and did! Tremendous in scope and Breathe taking in its suspense, ATLAS SHRUGGED is unlike any book you have ever read. It's a mystery story, not about the murder of a mans body, but about the murder and rebirth of a mans spirit."
Absolutely the best book ever penned!
It literally encompasses all of human action...philosophy, economics, politics, sociology, phycology. Written in an easily and sharply understandable novel form, hits like a sledge hammer between the eyes. You will not understand the depth of this book for years and even after you read this booklist! [...] Every sentence has meaning and sometimes a full books worth.
There are mistakes in all the books on the list [...] or less clear redundancies with the exception of Ayn Rand's books. You should read all her non fiction as well. I originally thought there were mistakes in Ayn Rand books. As I read on not only into her works but into all of the greatest minds in history, all of what I had mistakenly believed as her mistakes have fallen of to the floor, been nailed down, the edges stapled to the floor then have been smashed into little peaces, crushed into dust then shellacked over I.E. It is correct and you will understand what I am talking about when you read on.
Do not ever take my word for it or anyone else...just read it from the horses mouth. Always, always go directly to the source & forget what he said she said about anything...this is a rule that you should staple to your fore head! There is another book with far fewer mistakes than all the rest except Ayn Rand's books and that is Socialism by Ludwig Von Mises...that is why It is number 2 on the list.
I had these silos or pillars of knowledge built up over my life that I knew were fact and true but they were unconnected...Ayn Rand came along and connected them all like a bridge adding the superstructure and the road bed and even painting it, I in my entire life would not have been able to do that without reading just this one book!
Atlas Shrugged...the most influential book in history next to the bible. Library of Congress
The 7 stages of reading Atlas Shrugged!
Most people who see the 1000 plus page novel hesitantly say, well its very thick...and the words are very small. Eliciting knee jerk comments like ya I usually can tell if I'm going to like a book in the first few pages, trying to escape the preconceived drudgery of reading such a large book. I say just read it you will like it far beyond any book you have read, in fact in most cases anything you have ever done.
Sometimes I call and ask how they like it in a couple of days and they say, well its pretty good and I'm reading it when I have time. I say great, keep reading!
But if they keep reading I will get a phone call in about a week. Hey Ty...this is a good book, I really like and can relate to it , etc. I say it gets better read on!
With consistent reading I generally get a call around 2 weeks. TY!!! I cant put this thing down...it's amazing!!! At this point I usually just smile at them! The 2 week time is partly because it is such a heavy and slow read in terms of the thoughts it generates...you may read a sentence or a paragraph and think for hours on that one thing.
Right around 3 weeks and this always happens, I get, in a very serious tone now...I haven't slept in days and I've been skipping work to read this thing!!!! The whole time I've been talking to them on where they are in the book and letting them know that it even gets massively better still. The first 2 parts are a build up to the last part!!! And they are now starting to understand! But unfortunately at this point some people tend to gloss over what just appear to be redundant details...DO NOT DO THAT!! Every piece of this book has meaning so read slowly and think!!!
At this point I am getting calls consistently now, asking things like Who is John Galt? I say John Galt discovered the fountain of youth, he discovered it high on top of a mountain and he crawled and scraped his way up to it. He was so happy that he found this incredible and beneficial thing that he wanted to bring it down so that all the people could enjoy its benefits...but he could not! And they ask why and I say Keep reading!
The last stage is when they finish the book and they are so on fire about Liberty/ freedom/capitalism that they want to charge off to battle socialism on the front lines and the power mongers who wield socialism like a sward...but I say keep reading because you still do not fully understand these ideas. But because of Atlas Shrugged you will now make room and time to read the books that are necessary to understand the rest of reality or what is really going on and most especially what really needs to be going on!!! i.e freedom/ liberty /Capitalism!
Enough said, just read it and never listen to the he said she said about anything. Always go the the horses mouth and see for yourself!
Book Review: $
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is very detailled and visual. It does start out a little slow at first with a lot of background on the main characters but it builds the story up and them(the characters) more personal and easy to relate to. Once you get to the heart of the book you will really feel like you are there and you will not want to leave. This book does change your perspective of thinking after reading it, I know it did for me.Book Review: 10 Pages should be the textbook in every first-year Economics class.
Summary: 5 Stars
It's hard for a committed Christian to give a militant atheist's book five stars, but as the saying goes, "all truth is God's truth", and there is so much vital truth in this tedious, maddening, electrifying, un-put downable, unforgettable book that I can't honestly give it anything less.
It deserves every accolade it's ever received for ~10 pages alone: pp. 608 thru the first short paragraph of 618. (Though for context one should start reading at the start of the chapter, "The Sign Of The Dollar", on p. 601.)
These pages relate Dagny's chance encounter with a tramp on her train who answers the question that's plagued her for the previous 600 pages: "Who is John Galt?".
But as the tramp tells the story of what happened to the great 20th Century Motors company, he also lays out an utterly brilliant, gut-wrenchingly graphic affirmation of the most important (and studiously ignored, go figure) book of the 20th century, Igor Shafarevich's "The Socialist Phenomenon", foreword by A.Solzhenitsyn. This 1975 book-length essay by an exiled Soviet mathematician exhaustively traces socialism in theory & practice from the beginning of world history and concludes:
"A multitude of similar examples leads us to suppose that the dying and, ultimately, the complete extinction of mankind is not a chance external consequence of the embodiment of the socialist ideal but that this impulse is a fundamental and organic part of socialist ideology. To a greater or lesser degree it is consciously perceived as such by its partisans and even serves them as inspiration. THE DEATH OF MANKIND IS NOT ONLY A CONCEIVABLE RESULT OF THE TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM--IT CONSTITUTES THE GOAL OF SOCIALISM." [emph. mine]
(This long-unavailable book can now be read online: http://robertlstephens.com/essays/shafarevich/001SocialistPhenomenon.html. I only wish I had the means to commission a statue of Robert L. Stephens, whoever he is.)
If just these 10-18 of the 1070 pages of "Atlas Shrugged" had been required reading for citizenship, for voting, for graduation from any school in America, America would be a very different place as we approach the 2008 Presidential election.
Book Review: 1000+ pages of death by redundant bludgeoning
Summary: 2 Stars
STOP! This is a novel with a bad plot, bad writing, horrible dialogue/monologue, and the hero gets the girl (who just happens to Rand's written self-portrait. I've seen better conceived soap-operas. Her heroes are stereotypes of how she saw herself and her loves . . . Greek gods and goddesses, perfect in thought, beyond intelligent, and a market capatilist's dream. Her antagonists are caricatures of inept, small-minded, lazy, and physically unattractive. This is a comic universe with poorly drawn comics. She should've let Marvel run with this story. I give her 2-stars because I'll give her credit for using a novel to give voice to her philosophy. Her philosophy, though, is misguided as it's a reaction to communism and her poor concept of Christianity. She also uses her philosophy as a blunt instrument. She bludgeons the reader with it, hitting the reader over-and-over-and-over. 60 pages for one monologue?? And then to claim she lived her life entirely by her philosophy is beyond arrogant. Read a bio on her and you'll realize she didn't even come close to living by her own philosophy.Book Review: 2010 Life as it is today
Summary: 5 Stars
Atlas Shrugged written in 1957 depicts life today to a T. We, may not agree with everything in this book but, would be hard pressed to play the, " Devil's Advocate " in disputing the facts. Of all the books I have read, Atlas Shrugged is rated #2. The bible being #1. Would recommend this book to all students studying Political Science.