February pleasure reading

Well this month I read several books that I had already read before but I also read a book I checked out from Duke's "New and Noteworthy" section: Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller.



This book was really interesting because it helped me to understand where all the inspiration for her books came from. There's nowhere to learn to write as eloquently and succinctly as she does, but the book describes her life in Russia pre-Communism and the damage caused to her Jewish family following the conversion of the country to Communism. As it is described in the book, Rand watched her father struggle and over-work to own/manage his own pharmacy and how proud she was of him for his work in achieving his goal. But of course, Communist regimes allow nothing to be privately held because OMG then life just wouldn't be fair! Anyway, the theft of her father's hard-earned business from him deeply affected Rand, even though her ideological beliefs had been formed long before that time.

She led a very interesting life but I think what I find most intriguing is the fact that she always knew she was going to be famous and successful -- I don't understand how some people can just have that much self-confidence but sometimes I wish that I could have it too. She became a very famous author because she knew she would become one. The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged have consistently sold more than 300,000 copies every year and since the economic downturn, sales of Atlas Shrugged have tripled (let's just hope that people who read it actually understand the dangers she warns about!)

The author dedicated small sections of the biography describing how various books that Rand read somehow found their way into her works. In particular, I enjoyed the time the Heller spent focusing on Rand's view of Robin Hood as a villain because of her belief that "need, not achievement, is the source of all rights" is horribly destructive (and I concur). I can only assume this is why in Atlas Shrugged she incorporates a character that takes back from the poor and gives it to those who actually earned it.

Also, since I read We the Living this year, I enjoyed the sections talking about Rand working to get it published and how it was marketed and well-received by the American people, especially in the 1930s:

It was a novel of crucial topical importance, exposing as both thoughtless and corrupt the liberal-collectivist dream of stripping prerogatives from the wealthy to enhance the welfare of the poor. Such a dream always ended in the destruction of the best -- in other words, of those who asked for no help and simply wanted to be left alone, and therefore had the greatest claim to life.

I would like to check this book out again to reread and I would also like to read Atlas Shrugged again. I'm not sure what March's pleasure reading will be yet, but maybe something will jump out at me today when I return the Rand biography :-)

EDIT: Today when I returned this book I checked out The Queen Mother: The Official Biography by William Shawcross. I just have a thing for (auto)biographies I guess...