Excellent! I remember it taking me 5 months to get through - mostly spent laying on my family room floor reading it after my family went to bed each night. I look forward to reading it a second time in the near future...

"I am awake" wonderful. I felt the same after reading it the very first time.

Welcome to Clarity :)

I think it took me a couple months. I found it to be a page turner until the final speech. That section was very slow and superfluous for me. I was sold on this mindset before I read the book (my Dad read the book and followed its philosophy,) I was sold on the concepts by the time I came to the speech and so it was difficult to rehash them again. I put the book down several times during his broadcast but I did get through it and am happy I did. I still recommend every citizen reads this book to repair our society.

Yes, that chapter didn't read at all like the book before it, I wondered at times if it was John Galt speaking or Ayn Rand directly. Many people wouldn't understand or care, it is only for those who can see it's importantance sadly.

You took a week off to read it?
I read it in less than two weeks in the evenings after working eight hours each work day.

I remember when I first discovered Rand. Early 70s when I was still hippie with all those left leaning, mystical ideals of that time and mindset. First read Fountainhead which I found in someone's bookcase. OMG. I could never ever look at the world the same again. All my old rubbish pretty much crumbled. Then I found AS. I must have read it at least 3 times that summer. I wasn't quite mature enough in many ways and read it seeking strength and a new focus. I sought to absorb something I knew I didn't have by osmosis. Which is a sort of secondhander thing in retrospect but the best I could find it in me to do at the time. I guess I have read it at least 10 times since in the 40+ years since then. Each time I find something new and come to it with slightly new eyes.

In between I have of course read everything else Ayn Rand wrote or was written about her. But AS is still a shining beacon to me. Even if The Fountainhead is a better novel qua novel.

I think you will find that being awake is a lot more fun than the sleep that everyone else is commited to. Enjoy!

Alright! Congratulations. Time to celebrate...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIsbD0l_bEg

Reading Ayn Rand...shedding the indoctrination one book at a time. =)

Congratulations, Matthew-Bester.
A whole new vista is a beautiful thing!
Respectfully,
O.A.

Reading Atlas Shrugged is a big Accomplishment. I go so completely sucked in when I read it the first that I took a week off of work to finish it. I read it the first time in about a month. It drastically changed how I think about life and relationships.

I highly recommend reading it again now that you can focus on the philosphy and the wording and not so much the story.

Who was your favorite character of the book? I relate to 'Frisco more than any other. Hard working, not scared to make the hard decisions. Even willing to watch his legacy burn in order to keep the wolves at bay from scavenging off of his labor.

Realistically we all can't be John Galt. Although I wish my mind would produce something that I could rock the foundation of the world.

Well done. Like a fog has been lifted right? Welcome... to the real world Matt. There's no going back.

I always like to think that the Eddie story does not end there.

Tough question, I was a track worker for a few years, I am currently and have been for a while a signaller/dispatcher so I can heavily relate to that part of the story and it's industry. So I guess I relate to Dagny. There are very few men/women of ability left...

Good idea, even the very first page will have new meaning now I know who he is talking too!

I was shocked, upset even that he couldn't let go, even more so that Dagny didn't ask for him. Thinking back through the story Eddie was far too obedient and always sacrificing his wants and desires to others. He never really thought for himself. I suspect in his final moments he relised how futile it was but it was too late.

*****SPOILER*****


Congrats matthew! Did the ending surprise you? What did you think about Eddie staying with the train?