Customer Reviews

Atlas Shrugged (volume 2 of 3)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the entire 3 volume story in 1 set. The mp3 disks played in my car radio without any problems. And the files were easily imported into my iPod. I just had to remember to rename the files when I copied them to the computer's HD.

I do not plan to review the book itself. That's been done ad nauseum.

I've read this book so many times, the pages are starting to fall out. Amazingly insightful and complex with many levels of meaning.

the only way i have ever been able to explain this book is that it is about those that do and those that take, and what would happen if those that take were to take over the whole world. the idea of objectivism that ayn rand has brought to full breathing life in this work of art is the ideal i have always lived but was never able to name. the idea that i am accountable for me, and that i live for me is something i have not read in the ultra politically correct world in which we live today. i am overjoyed to have found this book, this way of thinking and this author. please everyone who is reading this, whether you agree or not, give the book a try and keep your mind open to a wonderful outlook on what life should be.

I have noticed in the review of this book that many people mistake John Galt as being high on himself. They take Ayn Rand's description of the common worker as something bad. And they would be correct in that assumption. The "common" worker often comes home screaming for the weekend. The saying "thank god its Friday" came from somewhere did it not. The fact that the common man "hates Mondays" is also quite prevalent in our society. Would this happen to someone who loved their work? I think not. Most people let others push them around, they get into relationships they don't want in the long run because they don't put enough thought into them at the beginnning. They want life beautiful and easy, but they don't want to "work" at making that happen. You will notice that not all the people in Ayn Rand's "hidden" Colorado valley are people with degrees. But in fact, these people are as happy as the others. This is because they like what they do and respect those they work for. And when this fact changes they move on to another job (continuing to make themselves happy and be "self-centered"). Is the opinion of Ayn Rands that we should strive for "that" happiness a bad philosophy? If we could all just "stand on our own two feet" and be happy being our own person this planet would be a much happier place. At any crossroads in "Atlas Shrugged" Ayn Rand presents to us what a "hero" would do and what a "drone" would do. At any decision we make we are allowed to decide how this will "affect us". How it affects us financially, emotionally, and any other manner is up to us. Not recognizing a tiger as a tiger is our own stupidity. Not recognizing a bad boss or a bad job is also our own fault. While a job may not be bad in "society's eyes", it may be bad in an individual case. And when you make that decision that it is "bad for you" then you have become an "objectivist". An objectivist looks at the whole and decides how it affects" him or her. "Atlas Shrugged" like "The Fountainhead" or "Anthem" state this all too well. An individual making individual choices for that individual. It does not mean "not caring about society" or not caring about "one's fellow man". It simply means that you don't "owe" them anything. It is a book like this that every once in a while opens the eyes of a reader and lets them know its okay to be themselves.

Long live those that open the eyes of the individual.

This is my bible.

I read Ayn Rand for the first time in 1975 when I was 18, since then, I have read and re-read both The FountainHead and The Atlas Shrugged many times over, with gaining more and more clarity as I grew in my experiences.

I have introduced my children with these books and they have greatly benifitted from the philosophy presented by Ayn Rand.

Even though I don't agree with Ayn from a religious perspective she did an awesome job of telling a story that proves a point that those who produce, are and always have been, under fire by those who don't. Unfortunately the story is coming true today more than ever. It is almost as if they got their strategy for the book. When you listen to this it will motivate you to accomplish something and be active to preserve it. Capitalism may have it's flaws but it is the most productive form of accomplishing something.

Christopher Hurt does an AMAZING job narrating this book. He switches characters so smoothly and realistically that you'd swear there are a whole room full of expert actors playing their parts. Ayn's writing style was very good, but the written text depends on the reader to inject the proper emotion into the story - not something that everyone can do. Christopher's reading is more like living the story. The emotion is embedded IN the lines. In my opinion, better than a movie.

Speaking of the movie, I'd highly recommend this audiobook to anyone who has seen Atlas Part 1 at the theater and is wanting more of the real thing.

This was a very good book. I started reading it, but didn't have enough time, so instead, decided to listen to it. The first chapter was enough to capture my attention and stick with it. Ayn Rand does a great job at keeping the listener entertained and focused in a story.

This story is about the economics of not only a struggling company, but in the workings of capitalism. It is captivating, educational and eye-opening.

It is a must read!

Read this book if you are open to changing the way you see the world and your life.

I've found the reader reviews an intensive eye-opening extension of Ayn Rand's psyche, almost as flavorfully expressed as AS, though not as exorbitant. For those who couldn't finish - perhaps absorbing it with a neutral perspective may help you overcome the polarized scenarios the author chose to adhere to her fiction, an irritating agent to most. The structure of her philosophy wasn't a discrepancy of social delusion (brainwashing has proven to be an incomplete task on the realistic masses) but an innate sense of pure being and keen observation for personal regulation. All of Rand's heroic characters blatantly chose who, what , when, and how to conduct a formula for speaking, working, loving, etc. An overkill of precise narcissism, perhaps; even though black and white thinking is seen in most part for extremists, an individual does eventually come to a decisive yes or no conclusion. The contradiction does appear in AS as the gray area of indecisiveness, the varying degrees of need for others to gain strengths, which is seen in Rand's other precarious characters. To attack such individuals as weak or evil is unnecessary, their actions tend to a prove a different self worth to a wider consensus. The judgment ultimately lies in productivity (I won't go there). If money makes the world go round, Rand definitely heightened the debate of self worth vs. survival tactics. How far do we go for our wants and how do we view outside help? Currently born rich or poor, do partnerships, credit cards, loans, and charities become progressive, envious tools for either party? The AS thinkers made a "joint" effort to prove a point of integrity by disappearing from a parasitic society; they did need to band together at the same time to make their justification, so are they weak and needy? For Rand's non-fiction insight, it does depend on which group you've identified yourself with to push the envelope, to uphold one's reverent will to the end, not exactly lone selfish Nazism. AS is still a fascinating classic novel; I've found no match to her literary web of insight. Yet!