Lesley Stahl's Bookshelf

Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
By Ayn Rand

In high school I inhaled Ayn Rand. I was inhabited by Atlas Shrugged and its main female character, Dagny, swept up with the freethinkers at Galt's Gulch. I was too young to grasp the political implications of Rand's philosophy; instead I focused on how important it was to be unemotional and to make up my own rules. Like the backseats of lovers' lane cars, Ayn Rand is for the young.