What it is: This book is Ayn Rand’s greatest work and culmination of her artistry and philosophy – a philosophy that celebrates human, earthly life, and the power of human rationality and creativity. It is also a mystery novel that is gripping and exquisitely crafted.

Growth Potential: Many, if not most people are caught between, on the one hand, their natural desires for pleasure, productivity, pride, worldly wealth and success, sexual satisfaction, and the right to choose their actions in service of their deepest happiness, and on the other, a moral code that tells them that such “self-ish” desires are immoral and evil, and that in order to be “good,” they must sacrifice their personal happiness to achieve the happiness of others. Caught between these their natural desires and the moral prohibitions they have been taught, they find themselves 1) acting half-heartedly to achieve their goals, as if they must apologize for their weakness of character, and 2) feeling guilty for their “self-ish-ness,” making them easy prey for preachers and politicians who want to manipulate them into supporting their programmes. By clarifying this dichotomy and offering a solid philosophical solution to it, Atlas Shrugged, as just one of its many gifts, supports human beings in passionately pursuing their highest vision and bringing their most precious gifts to the world.

Pop Potential: It is typically listed as one of the most important and popular books in the world. 50 years after its publication, it still sells hundreds of thousands of copies a year. It is currently being made into a movie and that will star Angelina Jolie.

“Get Real” Potential: Unfortunately, for all of its strengths, the novel is so demanding and unapologetic in its themes and philosophy that many people get turned off and angry, and stop reading rather than deal with the issues it raises. For this reason, the book has many detractors who have not actually read it, and those that have typically have a shallow understanding of it after only one reading.

What I Got out of it: This book is one of the most important books I have ever read, by far. Nothing else really comes close, except perhaps Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality by Ken Wilber. It completely transformed how I understood, my Self, Society, Sex, Philosophy, Politics, and pride. I have read it over 20 times, and every time I read it, I feel like it was a wise investment of my time because I get more inspired to bring my gifts to the world with my whole heart and soul, and to love life more fully than I have been, however much that is. It is an anthem to human possibility and the spirit of beauty that makes life worth living.

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