[Unglaublich Verwustung]

Originally Posted by Luvian Atlas Shrugged? I keep hearing about it. how is it? It sounds like more of a commentary book. Is it actually a real novel?

Yep, a real novel, 1300 pages of it. It was published back in 1957, has various critics and supporters. Although it is essentially a work of fiction it effects a fairly in-depth introduction to Ayn Rand's philosophical themes, which she developed into the philosophy of Objectivism. Much harder reading in parts than a lot of books, more like wading through Tolkien's Silmarillion than a quick romp through LOTR (imagine!) - there is one particular speech, to which the novel builds up in the first 1000 pages, during which one of the protagonists goes into some fairly serious discussion which encompasses metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and to an extent political ideas. The fact that this was supposed to be a radio speech (3 hours long) strikes me as a poor device; just listening to what is discussed would leave most people floundering to remember where it started and feeling overwhelmed towards the end, if they didn't just switch stations on the radio. Hell, I read sections of that part a few times to get my head around where it was going and took a break twice, even though it is only 56 pages long.

Is it worth reading? Yes.

Should it be taken as a definitive philosophy on how to live your life? Absolutely not, but it has some good pointers.

Worth checking out: Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and Nobel Peace prize winner - Banker to the Poor http://www.grameen-info.org/book/index.htm