Atlas Shrugged ...reading

Okay, I must admit. I was not a reader...never read the classics, missed the boat on what was going on in the world around me when I was a teenager and well into my adulthood. My son knew about this book and I had never heard of it. I hate to admit it but it is true.

As you know I work for government and I was in a informal meeting with a consultant and he made a reference to Atlas Shrugged. I am sorry to say that the three others, all work in government, had not heard of it either. He went on to tell us just that it was written by Ayn Rand and that it is a classic and that we have to read it. One of the women turned to me and asked me to order a copy for each of them. Knowing nothing about it except it has been around a long time. I decided to first check it out at the library. All copies were out ( I am sure it is getting a lot of attention nowadays) but I asked for a hold and it came in. I went to pick it up and I almost laughed out loud when I saw its size...it is 1168 pages. Meanwhile I thought of the conversation we had in front of the consultant....how ignorant that conversation sounded. Clueless. He probably laughed inside when he knew we were talking about an 1168 page novel. Yeah I won't be ordering it with public funds...although based on the content, I am guessing it would actually be a good thing. :)

I am only 125 pages in and am enjoying it very much. I have resisted the urge, mostly, to look up the whole story line, see how it will end, etc. So far I am already sure that every business owner wishes every politician and government employee would read it.

I read a passage that affected me to the core. I was going to write it here but when I had Barrett read it, it didn't hit him the same way as it did me. I realized I can't set up the characters here well enough to feel the true impact of the passage. I will hold off until I finish the whole book. I can tell you that I thought it illustrated, to a tee, the current political/socioeconomic situation that we find ourselves in.

In looking for a picture for this blog, I saw that it is slated to become a movie in 2011. Interesting....