I'm new to this discussion group, so you might have had this topic before, but I'm curious to find out what is each person's favorite Ayn Rand book. By "favorite" I mean what book has impacted your life the most or has been most relevant to your greatest values. I only know one person who reads Rand, so it would be interesting and possibly insightful to find out what other people enjoy about Rand, and why.

As for me, my two favorites are associated with my profession (the novel): Atlas Shrugged and the Romantic Manifesto. Atlas Shrugged is the best crafted and the most enjoyable novel I have ever read. The Romantic Manifesto helped me in my attempt to understand what I had once viewed as the simultaneously instructive and explorative nature of art, or the normative nature of art. In other words, nothing could be more important to me, personally, than how the Romantic Manifesto led me to an understanding of how the novel (and all art) concretizes values.

Hmmm that is a tough one.

I enjoyed all of her novels. I think We The Living was the most moving. At least for me. But, that was the first thing I read after Anthem.

My opinion on this is only limited to her fiction as that is all I have finished thus far, I've just begun The Virtue of Selfishness.

As far as a good read is concerned, or the best story--it's The Fountainhead for me. All I have to read is "Howard Roark laughed," and I'm hooked. Seriously, the few times I've picked it up I just can't put it down until I have to.

But, since you really want to know what has impacted me the most, it's Atlas Shrugged. If you read it (and understand it) you can apply it to every aspect of your life. It's helped me be less frustrated in my work relationships because I recognize what is wrong with the people that don't work the same as I do, whereas before I just couldn't understand it (I still don't approve of it.) It helped me come to terms with religious issues I had, namely that I didn't believe and thought I was wrong by that (The Fountainhead gets some credit for that, too. "Man went in search of God and found himself.") Most recently it has helped me to improve my marriage, it caused me to take a cold hard look at the things I was doing that were wrong; things I had always justified to myself. And most importantly, Atlas has helped me gain a level of confidence in myself that I had never quite had (though I've always had more than most people around me) and I am now 100% comfortable in my skin.

That's probably more than you wanted, but I get my lack of brevity from Ayn Rand, too. :)

~Taryn

That's probably more than you wanted, but I get my lack of brevity from Ayn Rand, too. :)

~Taryn

hahah...I found that funny. With Ayn Rand though, she had a lot to say, and explain. I don't think she had a problem with brevity really. I have brevity issues...tangents and I constantly tangle and converge...very sad really. It's almost as bad as my parking impediment. Or my eating "curse". (Ever seen that commercial with the woman in the bathroom bemoaning the food spilled on their blouses?)

I don't think you have issues with brevity either. Sometimes it takes more words to say something because there is MORE to say...not just fluff.

We The Living moved me as many good stories do. I was quite satisfied with her works of fiction as well and they did really make me think. Good Copy (one of her short stories) made me laugh. As far as life changing, though, I think her non fiction work has been more instrumental in that for me. "Voice of Reason" contains some essays I have found really good, as well as VOS. (of course not all of them were essays that Rand wrote.) By the time I had started reading Atlas Shrugged I was already reading OPAR and had read many of her essays, so maybe it just didn't seem as ground shaking to me. (Honestly. though, I don't know if I would have gotten it just by reading her fiction and not having anyone to discuss it with, or not having any of her essays to read. I just ain't that sharp.)

On a side tangent: "Job: A Comedy of Justice" is one of the few fiction books that has effected my life significantly just by reading it. I think if I hadn't read that book by Heinlein several years ago I wouldn't had gotten to agnosticism and then become an atheist in the past few years. And if not, I wonder how many more years it would have been before my mind would be ready to even begin to sit down and read any of Rand's books.