The NF Library: 16 Books to Inspire, Educate, and Level Up Your Life

[Centurion]

On the Rand discussion, I haven't read Atlas Shrugged. I have read Anthem and loved it, so I decided to pick up Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged many years ago. I tried reading the latter once and made it to chapter 2 or 3. Now I'm talking to a girl who identifies as an Objectivist and says that Atlas Shrugged is her favorite book. Now it is recommended here. Maybe this is nature's way of telling me to try to read it again?

I'm in the same boat. I enjoyed Anthem (read it in one sitting on a 3 hour train journey) but haven't read Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged. I have done enough reading about Rand's philosophies to understand people's distaste for her and I think my opinion on it is best summed up by xkcd: http://xkcd.com/1049/ particularly the mouse-over quote:

"I had a hard time with Ayn Rand because I found myself enthusiastically agreeing with the first 90% of every sentence, but getting lost at 'therefore, be a huge asshole to everyone.'"

I personally think only the first three are worth reading. I just felt he got lazy in four and five which cause the story to suffer. First book is a must read.

Agreed, I though the first two were great, the third was good but not amazing and never got through the fourth because it just felt uninspired

[Elastigirl]

"I had a hard time with Ayn Rand because I found myself enthusiastically agreeing with the first 90% of every sentence' date=' but getting lost at 'therefore, be a huge asshole to everyone.'"[/

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This is a great quote. This is exactly how I felt about the book. I found myself agreeing with so much, but then somehow it meant that we shouldn't care anything about anyone else.

[cracked_belle]

A short list of books that in my mind are essential reading:

1. Zen and the Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Perschig. What starts as a story of a man and his son vacationing on a motorcycle becomes a story of Zen and fatherly love. A must read book for a man.

need to pull that off my shelf and finally read it....