Atlas Shrugged

I understand that some people are intimidated by fat books. I love fat books. I sometimes look for books that have more than 500 pages. I am currently rereading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I absolutely love this book. My copy has 1084 pages. The pages are very thin and are filled with tiny print. I bought this book for $3.00 at a garage sale or used book sale or someplace like that. The pages are yellowed and have that moldering older book smell.
Atlas Shrugged is a highly philosophical book full of long speeches on right and wrong and an individuals responsibility to others or to themselves. The phrase summing up the ideas in the novel is "Who is John Galt?" The story line revolves around industry: building railroads, producing metals, building things and a lot of things that I have no knowledge of. However, I love the ideas that the book is built around and the way the characters react to different things. The heroes of the book are strong characters with very decisive opinions. They are described in almost harsh language. The villains are some of the weakest characters I have ever come across. They have no opinions, they don't want to cause harm to anyone or anything, they don't take stands on anything, everything is relative. These weak characters are able to wear down and systematically destroy the heroes. It is one of the few books I have read that doesn't try to match the hero and villain with almost equal strengths.
Atlas Shrugged was written in 1957. The frightening part of this book is seeing how close our society is to some parts of this story. Although I don't agree with all of the principles in this book, much of it is quite valid. Ayn Rand is unlike any other author I have read. Her writing style and stories are challenging and thought provoking. I recommend this book or any others that she has written to anyone. If you don't think you can make it through the long version, find an abridged one. I think it is well worth your time.
 

Authors and Books

Over the last couple of days I have contemplated several different topics to write about. I thought I would tell you about those people who always make my day brighter. I thought maybe you would find my strange clock amusing that randomly decides to stop working and then starts up again weeks after I thought the battery gave out. I know you are wondering why I never changed the battery in weeks, but that isn't relevant right now. I thought about going more serious and talking about my views on the "radicalization" of Islam. Or maybe I could jump on the favorite topic for the last two weeks, Charlie Sheen. But I'm not feeling passionate about any of these things right now. I was chatting with a friend last night and realized again that I love authors. I would like to tell you about some of my favorites. Please note my favorites are always changing, but these almost always make the cut.

Yesterday I was reading some essays and excerpts from G. K. Chesterton. He lived in the late 1800's to early 1900's. Although he lived quite a while ago, it amazes me how relevant his ideas are for today. He is rather philosophic in nature, but in a down to earth understandable sort of way. Here are some essays he wrote.

C. S. Lewis is another all time favorite of mine. He is most well known for his children's books The Chronicles of Narnia. He also wrote quite a bit about Christianity. He has a phenomenal skill of making something that seems complex and hard to understand simple. One of my favorite books of his is The Screwtape Letters where a senior demon gives advice to his nephew on tempting his person.

For pure story telling genius here are some of my favorites: David Farland, Brandon Sanderson, and Robin Hobb. I can only aspire to telling stories like these authors. There is a point in most books which I like to term, "the point of no return." This is the part in the book where you can no longer set it down and simply must finish it. A normally punctual person will find themselves running out the door super late for an event. An early to bed person will chastise themselves for going to sleep at 4 in the morning because they simply had to read one more chapter. I hit the point of no return fairly early on in the books these authors write.

There are so many authors that I love and books that have become my friends over the years. Ayn Ran created fascinating philosophical stories, Francine Rivers told very realistic and sometimes raw stories about people in difficult situations. I love children's stories and I remember quite fondly Madeline L'engle, Lloyd Alexander, Judy Blume, and Lois Lowry. I have a book written by Fans G. Bengtsson. It is called The Long Ships. I absolutely love this book. I don't know if he has written any others, but this one I have read four or five times.

As you can see I have many favorite authors. Each one of them has a strength all their own. I find myself wishing I had the clarity of C. S. Lewis or the wit of Mark Twain. But I am unlike anyone who has written before me. I am uniquely my own style. And maybe sometime in the future another reader will draw inspiration from my writing or perhaps find a friend in a book that I wrote. That for me, would be wonderful knowing I have given something transcendental to someone else.