I just checked Amazon.com. The "Centennial Edition" paperback of Atlas Shrugged is #208 in book sales. Many authors would be thrilled to see their latest work ranked that high (especially if it's fiction; the list of top sellers is heavily laden with self-help and other non-fiction books).
Rand's magnum opus is available in multiple editions, and the others are selling well, too. The mass-market paperback is #292, and the "Centennial Edition" hardback is #800.
Yaron Brook, writing in the Wall Street Journal, observed that Atlas Shrugged is selling faster right now than at any time in the 51 years since it was published. And with good reason:
… In "Atlas," Rand tells the story of the U.S. economy crumbling under the weight of crushing government interventions and regulations. Meanwhile, blaming greed and the free market, Washington responds with more controls that only deepen the crisis. Sound familiar?
The novel's eerily prophetic nature is no coincidence. "If you understand the dominant philosophy of a society," Rand wrote elsewhere in "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal," "you can predict its course." Economic crises and runaway government power grabs don't just happen by themselves; they are the product of the philosophical ideas prevalent in a society — particularly its dominant moral ideas.
Read the whole thing. And if you haven't read Atlas Shrugged — or read it decades ago and no longer have a copy to reread — this would be a good time to order a copy. Amazon.com has plenty.
HT: Ari Armstrong