Looking back, Atlas Shrugged is probably a bucket list book for many literary enthusiasts, but after a while, reading a book in its entirety just to say you did is a bit ridiculous-although there was a time when I would set out to do just that. I’m pretty sure Animal Farm was about the same length as John Galt’s famous speech over the pirated radio airwaves in Atlas Shrugged, and in reality, the political message could be delivered concisely in a few pages. But the question you need to ask yourself is do you need to read a 70+ page political soliloquy in order to understand, and appreciate, the underline message in a book? This is fine if you have a reader that enjoys a long-winded author in order to get the message in the book. This played out long-enough and you end up with a 1,000+ page book with an interesting plot, ideas, characters and political message, but just too long and time-consuming to fully absorb and/or appreciate. In fact, the US Navy was actually disciplining unruly Sailors by making them read Atlas Shrugged, and other Ayn Rand works, and then doing reports on what they read!Īnd there are some valid critical points about reading Atlas Shrugged in its entirety: Ayn Rand can easily spend 20 words to describe what should probably take two words. Spending that much time on a book is a question for individual readers.īut it can be a bit of a chore. In fact, a well-written book that is very long can be an extraordinary literary experience.īut the question remains, is Atlas Shrugged worth spending the time to actually read? At 30-pages an hour pace, it would take over 35 hours to read in the hardback version I bought. Don Quixote, War and Peace and even Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six were all over a thousand pages long and well worth the significant time it takes to read them. I am certain that many people have gone out to buy a copy of Shrugged, and then, realizing just how thick and long this behemoth of a book really is, either started but never finished it, or simply did not even begin the monumental task of reading it-most versions of the book are over 1,000 pages.įirst off, there is nothing against long books. And I am sure that many people have heard about what an opus Atlas Shrugged is, and how it is a “must read” and especially if they support capitalism or libertarian ideals. In fact, it is probably more relevant now than ever before in American history. It is continually in most of the “Top 100” reading lists I have come across. Atlas Shrugged is one of those books that probably everyone should read.
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