John Galt

What's your point linking to this Wikipedia page, OP?

In my teens I read Atlas shrugged completely blind, with no prior knowledge of the book or author.

I only finished the last third of the book out of spite, so that I could confidently denounce it. Crappy propaganda snuck into a half baked novel to insult the intelligence of the reader.

It's hypocritical too, as it engages in the same emotional appeals that it internally ascribes to villains or their hapless dupes—twisting the formula of "think of the children" into "think of the fictional character I spent pages trying to make you care about."

For me, it was what age I was when I read Atlas Shrugged. I have so far read it 3 times, last 2 times just gone past Galt's speech as quickly as I could. Each time, I had a different opinion

1. Age 21: Loved the book. Loved the ideas proposed and completely agreed with the philosophy espoused in the book.

2. Age 25: Still like it. Maybe not all the ideas in the book. Some of them didn't make much sense, but overall the message from the book was agreeable.

3. Age 31: Hated it. Extremely unrealistic and more of a fairy tale.

I wouldn't read it again, waste of time and not worth the effort.

I tried so hard to finish Atlas Shrugged but I only made it as far as realizing/learning who John Galt is and by then it was a chore. Gave up and haven’t looked back.