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Lucille
02-26-2009, 09:15 AM
Sales of “Atlas Shrugged” Soar in the Face of Economic Crisis (http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=22647)


Washington, D.C., February 23, 2009--Sales of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” have almost tripled over the first seven weeks of this year compared with sales for the same period in 2008. This continues a strong trend after bookstore sales reached an all-time annual high in 2008 of about 200,000 copies sold.

Via Malkin tweet (http://twitter.com/michellemalkin). Who here is on Twitter? Is the CFL on Twitter and if not, why not?

Truth Warrior
02-26-2009, 09:15 AM
:cool:

ClayTrainor
02-26-2009, 09:16 AM
i recently bought a copy of this, myself.

ItsTime
02-26-2009, 09:17 AM
You would have to give Glenn Beck some credit for that. He has had people from the Ayn Rand institute on his TV show a lot.

You know what? I have never read Atlas Shrugged :runs for the hills

Bruno
02-26-2009, 09:20 AM
You would have to give Glenn Beck some credit for that. He has had people from the Ayn Rand institute on his TV show a lot.

You know what? I have never read Atlas Shrugged :runs for the hills

Get a copy and start reading - you'll be hooked. don't be intimidated by the size, just let start.

Wife and I just finished it last month. Fanstastic!

StudentForPaul08
02-26-2009, 09:42 AM
Get a copy and start reading - you'll be hooked. don't be intimidated by the size, just let start.

Wife and I just finished it last month. Fanstastic!

I got one from the library and started to read it and liked it, but I can never find the time to read what I want. I need to prioritize better. Especially if i awnt to take on that beast. haha. :cool:

nelsonwinters
02-26-2009, 11:37 AM
I didn't consider reading it due to a lack of time available to read such a lengthy novel. However, I happened to notice the audiobook version at my local library. I just finished the first third (it's broken up into 3 separate audiobooks) and am waiting on the second part to become available at the library. They have multiple copies in my county library system and there's a waiting list to get these.

I recommend checking out your local library to see what's available (make sure to check online since often times many of the worthwhile books are checked out and you have to request them).

fletcher
02-26-2009, 12:08 PM
I didn't consider reading it due to a lack of time available to read such a lengthy novel. However, I happened to notice the audiobook version at my local library. I just finished the first third (it's broken up into 3 separate audiobooks) and am waiting on the second part to become available at the library. They have multiple copies in my county library system and there's a waiting list to get these.

I recommend checking out your local library to see what's available (make sure to check online since often times many of the worthwhile books are checked out and you have to request them).

I listened to the audiobook. 52 HOURS! If you don't want to wait for the library you can download it via torrent.

Truth Warrior
02-26-2009, 12:10 PM
http://bookshelved.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?AtlasShrugged (http://bookshelved.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?AtlasShrugged)

RonPaulVolunteer
02-26-2009, 12:20 PM
I got it in audio.

cska80
02-26-2009, 01:24 PM
I think Fransisco's speech on money, http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1826, is the single best piece of literature I've ever read in my life. If you haven't read the book, read that speech at that link above.

Truth Warrior
02-26-2009, 01:40 PM
I think Fransisco's speech on money, http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1826, is the single best piece of literature I've ever read in my life. If you haven't read the book, read that speech at that link above. Yep, that's a goody. ;) Thanks! :)

purplechoe
02-26-2009, 03:15 PM
I'm still in the process of reading it. I hope to finish it within the next couple of months. If the size of "Atlas Shrugged" intimidates you, maybe start out with "The Fountainhead".

emazur
02-26-2009, 03:53 PM
I listened to the audiobook. 52 HOURS! If you don't want to wait for the library you can download it via torrent.

Torrent? Ayn Rand wouldn't approve, looter!

Though to be honest, I also torrented the audio when I was living overseas - it was my first Rand novel. I later bought the audio of The Fountainhead and a hard copy of Atlas Shrugged, and plan on buying the audio of Atlas Shrugged later. But you can legally download unofficial copies of Rand's "Anthem" - something about how the copyright was not renewed on time:
http://librivox.org/anthem-by-ayn-rand/

And for anyone short on time, I believe the abridged audio version of Atlas Shrugged is 14 hours (but really you should read/listen to the whole thing)

Truth Warrior
02-26-2009, 03:56 PM
Torrent? Ayn Rand wouldn't approve, looter!

Though to be honest, I also torrented the audio when I was living overseas - it was my first Rand novel. I later bought the audio of The Fountainhead and a hard copy of Atlas Shrugged, and plan on buying the audio of Atlas Shrugged later. But you can legally download unofficial copies of Rand's "Anthem" - something about how the copyright was not renewed on time:
http://librivox.org/anthem-by-ayn-rand/

And for anyone short on time, I believe the abridged audio version of Atlas Shrugged is 14 hours (but really you should read/listen to the whole thing)

It's OK, she's LONG dead.

ChaosControl
02-26-2009, 04:02 PM
This afternoon I just contributed to the soar by picking it up on my lunch break.

Why are there so many editions of the same book? I never know which to buy. I ended up getting the signet one cause it wasn't as huge to carry around, I prefer books to be portable.

BuddyRey
02-26-2009, 08:31 PM
Please, whatever you do, do not let the size of this book dissuade you from reading it. I started taking it in just this week in audiobook format, and I'm already almost finished!!! I've been listening to it in 12+ hour chunks, sometimes even missing sleep for it. It is absolutely riveting, and in whatever form you decide to digest it, you will not want to put it down. It has replaced "Tale of Troy" by Roger Lancelyn Greene as my all-time favorite book. Oh, if only there was a real John Galt to rescue us from this place! :(

gilliganscorner
02-27-2009, 06:06 AM
I personally believe this is one of the greatest books written of all time. Why?

I sometimes wonder if this book was fiction. She laid out a blueprint for agorism (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=153542).

The difference simply is how it was executed. In her book, the producers physically relocated into some secret remote place in the Colorado Rockies where they could live free a la free market = voluntary associative society = the absence of the condition of coercion, using sound money (gold) as a trading medium.

We could do the same thing without relocating. We could hide in plain sight! All we need to do is identify potential trustworthy trading partners through a website, such as Social Engineer's Free Market for Liberty (http://www.freemarketforliberty.com) site, and trade off the books (avoid theft via taxation) and use sound money (avoid theft via inflation). You could even use Federal Reserve Points as money, provided you converted them immediately into gold and silver rounds to skirt the inflation tax (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4yBrxmEOkY).

Once agorism is understood, all that is lacking is the will.

Thrashertm
02-27-2009, 06:31 AM
I listened to the audiobook. 52 HOURS! If you don't want to wait for the library you can download it via torrent.

Me too. I only listened to it while lifting in the gym, so it took me almost 3 months to get through it!

Great book though...

honkywill
02-27-2009, 09:52 AM
I bought my first copy of it in January. :)

RCA
02-27-2009, 10:07 AM
I think Fransisco's speech on money, http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1826, is the single best piece of literature I've ever read in my life. If you haven't read the book, read that speech at that link above.

Thanks for the website plug. I've added it to Websites for Liberty in my signature.

Imperial
02-27-2009, 03:33 PM
The Fountainhead is sooo much better than Atlas Shrugged.

Smaller scale; Atlas Shrugged tries to do way to much, and I think doesn't make its point as well.

Although the major flaw in The Fountainhead I think is the rant of Ellsworth Toohey at the end.

BuddyRey
03-03-2009, 11:10 PM
The Fountainhead is sooo much better than Atlas Shrugged.

Smaller scale; Atlas Shrugged tries to do way to much, and I think doesn't make its point as well.

Although the major flaw in The Fountainhead I think is the rant of Ellsworth Toohey at the end.

Wow, really? I read The Foundtainhead last year, and though I enjoyed it overall, I thought the characters were very wooden and the dialogue incredibly tedious. Though it's actually shorter than Atlas Shrugged by a few hundred pages, it took me much longer to get through the former than the latter.

Both books have phenomenal plots, but I feel like Rand matured a lot as a storyteller in the decade between the release of the two books. Her characters in Atlas Shrugged are also a lot more human; can laugh, cry, feel, and even experience sympathy for others, whereas Howard Roark, in my opinion, is stoic to the point of being robotic.

Suzu
03-04-2009, 03:14 AM
I first read the Ayn Rand books when I was in high school (1967-1970) and have re-read them about every 6-8 years since. Classics.

Xenophage
03-04-2009, 04:00 AM
There are also other great libertarian fiction novels you can check into. Atlas Shrugged is kind of generally considered the penultimate, but if you're down for a bit of sci-fi I might also suggest Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" or L. Neil Smith's "The Probability Broach."

I'm encouraged to see that people are getting Atlas Shrugged, however I wonder how many are actually first time readers.

Xenophage
03-04-2009, 04:02 AM
Wow, really? I read The Foundtainhead last year, and though I enjoyed it overall, I thought the characters were very wooden and the dialogue incredibly tedious. Though it's actually shorter than Atlas Shrugged by a few hundred pages, it took me much longer to get through the former than the latter.

Both books have phenomenal plots, but I feel like Rand matured a lot as a storyteller in the decade between the release of the two books. Her characters in Atlas Shrugged are also a lot more human; can laugh, cry, feel, and even experience sympathy for others, whereas Howard Roark, in my opinion, is stoic to the point of being robotic.

Oh, I don't agree. The Fountainhead was a more captivating plot, very classically constructed with a clear antagonist and protagonist. Ellsworth Toohey MADE that novel :) In Atlas Shrugged, there is no singular villain to hate, and the main protagonist John Galt is absent for most of the book. Atlas Shrugged is greater a philosophic work, however, and bear in mind that it deal primarily with politics whereas The Fountainhead dealt more with morality (although Rand does a good job of linking the two in both novels).

BuddyRey
03-04-2009, 06:05 AM
Oh, I don't agree. The Fountainhead was a more captivating plot, very classically constructed with a clear antagonist and protagonist. Ellsworth Toohey MADE that novel :) In Atlas Shrugged, there is no singular villain to hate, and the main protagonist John Galt is absent for most of the book. Atlas Shrugged is greater a philosophic work, however, and bear in mind that it deal primarily with politics whereas The Fountainhead dealt more with morality (although Rand does a good job of linking the two in both novels).

Well I definitely agree with you about Ellsworth Toohey! Greatest literary villain I've ever encountered. What a creep that guy was!

I gained a great deal of insight from his final exchanges with Peter Keating, especially this gem:

"Kill by laughter. Laughter is an instrument of human joy. Learn to use it as a weapon of destruction. Turn it into a sneer. It's simple. Tell them to laugh at virtue. Don't let anything remain sacred in a man's soul — and his soul won't be sacred to him. Kill reverence and you've killed the hero in man"

It immediately made me think of Ron Paul and how his fellow candidates singled him out for derisive fits of laughter, when they did that to nobody else who shared that podium. Ghouliani & Co. must have studied under Toohey!

gilliganscorner
03-04-2009, 07:07 AM
Her greatest phrase, IMHO, from Atlas Shrugged?:


"the sanction of the victim"

In otherwords, what government needs in order not to resort to military force. The difference between the imprisoned and the slave. Someone in a cell is an economic liability to someone else. Someone who is a slave is an economic asset to someone else.

Truth Warrior
03-04-2009, 07:19 AM
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
Ayn Rand (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/ayn_rand.html)

gilliganscorner
03-04-2009, 07:41 AM
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
Ayn Rand (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/ayn_rand.html)

Awesome.


Run for your life from anyone who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another - their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of the gun.


Watch money. Money is the barometer of 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 rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - then you will know that your society is doomed. Gold is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half property, half loot.

Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying gold money, for it is man's protection, and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold is an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper money is mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by guns aimed at those who are expected to produce. Paper money is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked: "account overdrawn".