Anthem by Ayn Rand

6/10

I finished this book about two months ago. It was a super quick read, only like 105 pages. However, the version I read had an additional 1st edition version of the book with Rand's own handwritten edits in tact. So I of course read that as well. Which was neat because (a) I had a reason to re-read the story (I don't re-read stories too often, even ones that I really like) and it was cool to read it that second time knowing what was actually happening at the beginning; (b) it was cool to see how she edited her work and took out redundant/unnecessary lines/paragraphs. I had planned on reading this book for some time but always opted to read something else because I was aware of the edited version of the same story and didn't want to commit to reading the story twice. But I finally bit the bullet (as evidenced by this post) and it worked out swell and dandy.

The book was cool. I didn't fall in love with it, but it was interesting to read some of Rand's stuff/philosophy (this is my first Ayn Rand book). This dude lives in this society that has pretty much dumbed itself down in the name of unity and helping each other out for the common good. This dude is sort of a rebel and tries to learn stuff on his own (this is forbidden) and comes to the discovery that the individual is capable of great things and a bunch of stuff about how important the self is.

I recommend this book because (1) It is good to read at least one of Rand's books; (2) this is her shortest book and a good choice if you don't want to commit to her other massively large books and it gives a taste for her philosophy that she covers in her other books (so I've heard, remember: I haven't read her other books); and (3) it wasn't half bad and is certainly different/unique.