I like this one a lot, too! It makes Atlas sound very intriguing to the uninitiated. Considering that the description has to be brief, maybe the last three paragraphs could be used.

"What is Atlas Shrugged?"

I usually respond:

"Today's history," or "Current non-fiction," or"The ultimate engagement of good over evil."

What is Atlas Shrugged?

If the weight of the world were on your shoulders. .....and the harder you worked to keep it aloft it only bore down harder on you....and the answer to your problem were in a book.....would you read it?

Best concise description I've seen.

Congrats Neal! yea! way to wisely use your first vote in the gulch! keep up the good production!

Hi Joe, I'm back already to give you the thumbs up I promised. This should be my 100th pointer right here. (after I refresh the page)

"Atlas Shrugged" takes us inside a world in chaos: Those who value reason, capitalism and individualism remove themselves, stopping the engine of the world., Can dissenters turn it back on?

Iron Man. Spider-Man. Superman. Batman. Our culture is full of the stories of the hero who appears out of nowhere or rises from nothing to save the world from impending doom. "Atlas Shrugged" is about a hero who realizes that mankind's worst enemy is itself, and that the only way to save humanity is not to save it from the results of its own choices, but to make it face those consequences head on.

It's pretty easy to blame everyone else for your problems. What happens when you run out of people to blame?

Atlas shrugged is a rational method statement for human existence.

from Joel Turtel, jturtel@yahoo.com
* Atlas Shrugged is where gov’t sponsored looting is not allowed
* Atlas Shrugged is where you can’t loot your neighbor through your Senator
* Atlas Shrugged is where gov’t is our agent, not our master
* Atlas Shrugged is where tyranny has been banned from the American dictionary
* Atlas Shrugged is America’s happy ending.
* Atlas Shrugged is where Americans do not trade liberty for “security”.
* Atlas Shrugged is a liberal's worst nightmare
* Atlas Shrugged is where you get what you deserve.
* Atlas Shrugged is where we understand that without liberty, there is no “security’.
* Atlas Shrugged is an America that does not trade liberty for "security."

Atlas Shrugged shows the importance of your time, thinking, work, benevolence, and good-will -- Your Life -- as they benefit you, yours, and all. Never sacrifice them to the demands of others.

The mind on strike

* Atlas Shrugged is the antidote to liberal poison
* Atlas Shrugged is the blueprint to a free America
* Atlas Shrugged is answer to vile socialism
* Atlas Shrugged says we have the right to live for ourselves.
* Atlas Shrugged is the moral champion of the producer.
* Atlas Shrugged is the enemy of parasites everywhere.
* Atlas Shrugged is an idea whose time has come.
* Atlas Shrugged is a salute to the best within us
* Atlas Shrugged tells us the glory that America once was, and could be again.
* Atlas Shrugged is a salute to an America that once was, and can be again.
* Atlas Shrugged is a liberals' nightmare
* Atlas Shrugged is a sword in the liberal heart
* Atlas Shrugged is a place where liberals get their just deserts
* Atlas Shrugged is capitalism's savior and socialism's deadly enemy
* Atlas Shrugged delivers us from the evil of socialism
* Atlas Shrugged shows us a future we can look forward to.
* Atlas Shrugged is our children's only hope for a better future.
* Atlas Shrugged can save America from Obamaland.
* Atlas Shrugged can save America
* Atlas Shrugged can bring back freedom and prosperity to America
* Atlas Shrugged sticks it to liberals
* Atlas Shrugged says we are NOT our brother's keeper.
* Atlas Shrugged says gov't has NO right to force us to be our brother's keeper.
* Atlas Shrugged says it's OK to be selfish and happy.
* Atlas Shrugged can be America's shining future
* Atlas Shrugged would have been a best seller with our Founding Fathers.
* Atlas Shrugged is the way to defeat the liberal parasites
* Atlas Shrugged is how America could be, and ought to be.
* Atlas Shrugged is the map to America's bright future.
* Atlas Shrugged is a salute to the human spirit
* Atlas Shrugged is a salute to the human mind
* Atlas Shrugged puts a stake into the heart of liberal's taxes and strangling regulations.
* Atlas Shrugged is the anti-Obamaland.
* Atlas Shrugged is where the Obamas of this world NEVER gain power over us.
* Atlas Shrugged is an America where you get to KEEP what you earn.
* Atlas Shrugged is an America where we have freedom and prosperity NOW, not in some sick socialist future.
* Atlas Shrugged will give your children a future.
* Atlas Shrugged is an America with limitless energy and an unlimited potential.
* Atlas Shrugged puts an end to gov't looters and parasites.
* Atlas Shrugged is what the American Revolution was all about.
* Atlas Shrugged buries socialism, once and for all.
* Atlas Shrugged says that YOU, not govt looters and parasites, own your own life.
* Atlas Shrugged is a world where the human spirit can soar and prosper.
* Atlas Shrugged turns America into a happy ending.
* Atlas Shrugged gives America a second chance.
* Atlas Shrugged is America's sunrise
* Atlas Shrugged is America's springtime after a vile socialist winter.
* Atlas Shrugged ends America's experiment with vile socialism.
* Atlas Shrugged cures the deadly disease called altruism/socialism
* Atlas Shrugged is America, when it was free and young
* Atlas Shrugged is your children's only hope

Joe, I'd give you a thumbs up too, but I can't vote yet, I only have 96 points to date. I will come back in a day or so to do it.

No way I could have said it better. ;-) Thank you!

You story is similar to many others including mine, only I was fortunate to read the fountainhead as a teen.

Remember, it's about the journey to be savored, not just a "destination" just like anything worthwhile in life. (Do you not enjoy reading? Hard for me to comprehend that-) I do recommend reading it in hardbound, got one from abebooks at a better rate than amazon. While in my opinion she could have benefited from a good edit, at 1168 pages it is pretty spellbinding overall. Read it aloud to my wife over a period of time, very enjoyable & remarkably prophetic.

Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged' vividly demonstrates the code of conduct (Integrity) for living in the world and what happens to those who believe that they can evade it.

As night follows day, collapse is the result of the withdrawal of the mind from the world.

I have to edit it for clarity.

Ayn Rand's Magnus opus, 'Atlas Shrugged' (published in 1957) depicts the struggle of the Productive Individual against those who steal their creative endeavors. One Man refusing to be his brother's keeper, swears an oath: "I will stop the motor of the world".

Atlas Shrugged is a novel written in 195(3?) that correctly foretold the sorry state our country is in today; how we got here and how to fix it.

Thank you.

Temlakos' elevator pitch for ASIII is OUTSTANDING!

It's a warning to watch out for corrupt vote buying political thug insane conman who are always trying to take and use the production of others to gain power and wealth for themselves. We are almost there, where can I find John Galt today?

Atlas Shrugged is a captivating novel. The greatest "shortcoming" is that the book is over 50 years old. The heroine is the vice-president of a major railroad company, and most of the plot revolves around her desperate efforts to keep the railroad going. In the 21st century, when the age of railroads is long past, this is certainly dated. Indeed, Atlas Shrugged, although contemporary when written, takes on the feel of a grand masterful allegory perhaps like Dante, Chaucer, or Swift. It is just as much "fun" as Alice in Wonderland or Gulliver's Travels--and just as serious as the Divine Comedy. Yet, if you listen to a hour of local and national news on TV every evening while reading the book--half of the stories will sound as though they were lifted from the book--so timelessness and universal is Rand's story.

This will probably be the most important book (to you) that you read in your lifetime.

What is it about? It is often described as "Capitalism versus Communism", or "altruism vs selfishness"--but both descriptions seriously miss the point. What this book is really about is much more fundamental. It is about the nature of good and evil, and beyond that, the very meaning of life.

"But I'm a good person, so what value is this book to me?"--you may ask. Answer: You have certainly noticed that adult "morality" is full of all kinds of exceptions and contradictions. The truth is, the world of "morality" we adults have constructed is a sham, a fraud. It is no more than "social convention"--which is to say, "what most-of-us more-or-less agree to"--and actually, despite all the "moral" justification, has absolutely nothing to do with morality or right-and-wrong, and often little to do with common sense.

Still, the question remains, "Why isn't simply accepting the current 'social norms' good enough?" "Go along to get along." Answer: To put it bluntly, the greatest evil the world has ever seen has been done by folks "accepting community norms" who thought they were doing good, or at least who could justify their actions as being "socially acceptable".

The truth is, you will be quite surprised when you learn the true nature of evil. Until you have read Atlas Shrugged, evil will remain a hazy mist floating just off your line of vision, which you don't look straight at, because you don't WANT it to exist. After reading Atlas Shrugged, evil snaps into sharp focus--and like a bully confronted--ceases to be a fear, and just becomes something distasteful to avoid.

As Rand richly illustrates: Just as eating too much fat can clog up your arteries, thinking "too much fat" can damage with your mental health. Some mental illness is physiological. But most mental illness is caused by unresolved internal contradictions. Reality is all there is. You do NOT have the option of living in your own private version of reality. Nevertheless, many, perhaps most, people live lives built on thier own complex lies. That turns smart people crazy, and stupid people mean and crazy.

How do you avoid "unresolved internal contradictions"? By knowing the difference between right and wrong, and never, ever, allowing a rotten board to be used in the construction of your mental house. The problem is the old "slippery slope". Lie to yourself just once, no matter how trivial the lie, and the next one will be easier. Before long, you realize that you can justify ANYTHING--and with the blessings of the popular culture. And before you know it, you've lost your soul.

As Rand preaches, the meaning of life is integrity. Living without compromise. To live a life filled with joy and pride in yourself, made possible by being free of mental conflicts. To know, not merely hope, that your mistakes were honest mistakes. To live with the knowledge that you are the best you can be, while striving to be better. To be a joy and comfort to the people you love. To give generously of your time, wealth, and love simply for the joy of doing so. To be a person who has changed the world for the better when you have gone. That's what Atlas Shrugged is really all about. All ofthe other themes, even Communism vs Capitalism are peripheral supporting themes. It is precisely because the fundamental issues are so basic and primary, that the implications are simultaneously universal--applying to all aspects of life.