We bogged down in Chapter One of Rand's Anthem. The self-pity got too choking to handle. We're treating the condition with some Rush songs.
If Ayn Rand can be credited with inspiring any achievement of genuine merit, a worthy addition to the Gaia Library you could say, it's inspiring Neil Peart to write songs. Eventually he would write better songs (than, say, "Anthem" off the album Fly by Night, to which I'm now listening) and eventually Peart and Rush managed to achieve a synthesis: they could keep the Randian flavor very subdued and paper over the thinness of the material with soaring musical virtuosity, and that's how you end up with fun stuff like "2112" and "The Trees", which I actually enjoy singing even though the lyrics are a bit eye-rolling.
The infuriating thing is that, merely because Rand's fable about tyranny is so generic, you can see how well it might apply to, say, the experience of being the nerdy kid constantly bullied at school. But the message is so corrupted with pride and other sins that it really is dreary reading. After even a few lines one wants to shout Yes, we get it, it's EVIL, we get the point!!
~Chara