After reading a random article about the 40th anniversary of Atlas Shrugged
I decided to buy and read the book. Wow. It is quite literally the best book I have ever read. There have been probably three books in my life that have been transformational so far.
They are all very random. The first book was Net Gain
by John Hagel, a McKinsey consultant (who would have thunk it). The book quite literally turned my career focus toward the Internet. Before then I was deciding to be a commercial airline pilot, someone in finance or ‘in IT’. It codified everything I loved about the Internet/BBSs and gave me a basic validation that the Internet was going to be a viable business career for me (I was 17 at the time).
The second book is American Psycho
. I was pretty much a nerd in High School. I still am but the book gave me a terrific contradiction that I now enjoy each day: the sense of style and the irony of style. I started to buy nice shirts, eat hedonistically and generally enjoy and acquire the finer things in life while simultaneously thinking it was all a sham. Bret Easton Ellis is also a fantastic writer and the book is superbly written, and the movie is also excellent.
Atlas Shrugged basically captures my political and moral beliefs: you’re responsible for yourself, you’re entitled to nothing but what you earn and conversely that need should never trumpet achievement. If someone can’t achieve something, they shouldn’t be given it out of need. And government and those acting in the ‘public good’ should be all minimized in all but the murky areas (infrastructure, health and education). I know that makes me a raging right wing lunatic. Hell, a lot of people have looked at me in disbelief before I read this book. Now, I believe I have become a monster. At 1,200 pages it’s a commitment but as I said, the best book I have read so far.
What are three books that changed your life? Blog or comment or keep the meme going.
now that you’ve finished atlas shrugged, it’s time to move on to nietzsche. haha.
Atlas Shrugged: at 18, it reinforced my notion that I needn’t feel bad when putting myself first. gave me the confidence to leave the beaten path.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: a book that matched my internal monologue. amazing and creepy at the same time.
Gandhi Autobiography: a flesh-and-blood, albeit dead, man to idolize.
Haven’t read American Psycho but love the movie. I’ve been compared to Bateman more than 20 times in my life.
I hope you don’t own a transparent raincoat.
Rock on. Welcome to the club. I was always slightly partial to The Foutainhead myself. Though similarly themed, it’s a lesser book in its ambition and hyperbole. It’s also a lesser book in pagecount. Something to be said for that with Rand
You’ll soon have all the well-worn paperback Rands on the bookshelf.
Second on my list, Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman.
Now that I write it, they’re probably just third-person vs. first-person expression of same pursuit.
btw - as you’re digging Rand, also read Greenspan’s book, where he describes how she kicks his ass into intellectual consistency.
Really brave of you to admit that you loved American Psycho. I did also, but in my experience people think you’re a freak if you tell people you liked that book. Good call Niki.
[…] Also, see three books that have changed my life so far. […]