Vilius’ Notes

Today I have finished reading (hmm, no, actually, finished listening) a great book, “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand (Wikipedia link).

• It took 54 hours 40 minutes to listen to it. I believe, 1/3 of it I did while walking in Vilnius to/from work, 1/3 while driving and stuck in traffic jams (perfect anger mediation tool!), and the rest – everywhere else.
• It is an amazing book, a great plot. A good exercise to try to go back in time when the book was written (1957) and think over how world was back then. How communism and capitalism were clashing in war of ideas, philosophies. In 1980s I remember my primary school teacher explaining how close is communism when money will not be present anymore…
• I can easily connect to the book, as I have mind (and knowledge) cult. But could Scandinavian countries be run on ideas of “Atlas Shrugged”? If yes, I would like to see the sketch of such setup – ideas of the book maintained along with social philosophies of Nordic countries.
• Great to see that in 2007 the book was translated to Russian – Ayn Rand is expatriate from Russia.
• It is amazing how I was not aware about Ayn Rand, when her book is so enjoyable, and there are communities (at least in US) who are following her philosophy (my brother got this book as a present from a guy in such organization). To link to the impact of the book, it is worth to mention some popular references (according to Wikipedia):
  • In the Futurama episode “I Second That Emotion“, the ‘library’ in the mutants’ village is a lone bookshelf stocking literary items flushed down toilets from above. When Bender takes a look on it, he finds Atlas Shrugged and says “Nothing but crumpled porno and Ayn Rand.”
  • In the South Park episode “Chicken Lover“, Officer Barbrady reads Atlas Shrugged after overcoming his illiteracy. He later states to the town that he “read every last word of this piece of garbage” and because he did so “will never read anything ever again.”
  • In an episode of The Simpsons called “A Streetcar Named Marge“, Maggie attends the Ayn Rand School for Tots. A poster on the wall reads “A is A,” the title of Part Three of Atlas Shrugged.

Definitely, I enjoyed the book, and I am going to read more of the reviews and related material.

Have you read the book? What impact it left on you?

What’s next for me? For audio books, “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini! Delicious peace, I eagerly waiting to experience it!