Atlas Shrugged Review

I can tell when I really enjoy a book because I am still thinking about it long after I have finished. I recently read the book Atlas Shrugged on a friend's recommendation. I must warn you that the book is intimidating due to the fact that it is so huge. We are talking 1100 pages! It took about 300 pages for me to really get into the book, but once I did I was hooked and I neglected my family for a couple of days while I read every minute I could.

The book was written 50 years ago, but there are many parallels between the book and what is happening to our government and society today. Apparently, many liberals in Hollywood fought hard against a movie coming out about it. Some favorite quotes:

"Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion—when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot."

"Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong."

"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

"Love is our response to our highest values. Love is self-enjoyment. The noblest love is born out of admiration of another's values"

I highly recommend the book. For a summary of the book, click here. I also just saw that they recently made a movie of the book. It is a three part movie. Part 1 was out this past spring in theaters and will be on dvd this fall and Part 2 will be out in theaters soon after that. Yay! I've attached a trailer (with commentary) of the movie. I love who they cast as Dagny, the protagonist. She is just like I envisioned her in the book.