After reading The Fountainhead, I head to hit up Rand's other books. They just make so much sense.
Atlas Shrugged is Rand's Pièce de résistance. It is both a very similar novel to The Fountainhead and very different. One of the things that I noticed right away was the vague disdain for architecture that permeates Atlas Shrugged. This makes sense to a certain extent - a person can only specialize in a few aspects of life - but it was jarring after reading The Fountainhead so recently.
If you are a big fan of Objectivism, the famed speech at the end of Atlas Shrugged, made my John Galt is nearly a complete defense of Objectivism. As a reader of literature, however, I found that the speech was quite overdone. Showing instead of telling is one of the primary attributes that makes great literature, great literature. Rand does an excellent job of showing people how to live a great life and what it means to both be alive, and to prosper. The length of the ending speech detracted from the rest of book in that it seemed superfluous, and almost distracting in its depth and scope.
Be that as it may, Atlas Shrugged is a true masterpiece. If nothing else, it will help to change the way you think about industry and capitalism. Highly recommended.
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08 October 2007
FMFM 1A, Fourth Generation Warfare[pdf]
A quick primer on fourth generation warfare by the Defense and National Interest website, as well as other types of warfare and how they differ from each other. If you've heard of fourth generation warfare, but don't really understand what it means and how it differs from the others, this is a nice intro text.
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Easily one of my favorite books. It is hard to describe what I felt the first time I read this book - it was as if the world crystallized; thousands of ideas were shown to be mere facets of a single central idea. The closest example I can think of is the feeling the Ancient Greeks would experience if introduced to Newtonian Physics by some intrepid time traveler.
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07 October 2007
Quite possibly on of the greatest books on investing in stocks and bonds. The author, Burton Malkiel, is a legend - on the board of Vanguard. He generally comes out with a new version of the book every few years. If you only read one investment book ever, this is the one to read.
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I've read it so many times I've lost count. Very well written for a children's book. The movie does not do it justice.
