5 Best Ayn Rand Books (2024)

Bio

Ayn Rand lived from 1905 until 1982 and in that time managed to achieve so much. She is a Russian- American Author who finished her education in Russian and then moved to the US to pursue her career. She eventually became known thanks to her amazing best-seller novel called The Fountainhead, but before that one, she had two other novels that didn’t quite make it.

Career

That initial novel started off her wonderful career and she kept writing amazing non-fiction novels that support her beliefs and morals. Ayn was a woman who believed in facts, logic, science, and not in religion. She expresses quite a lot of her philosophies in her books which are very fantastic indeed.

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Best Ayn Rand Books

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Philosophical System

Ayn Rand actually invented her own philosophical system which she named Objectivism. You will find that she shows that system quite a lot in her books, mostly in The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Prepare to meet Ayn Rand and her wondrous philosophies in her magnificent books that we have selected on our best books by Ayn Rand list.

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Atlas Shrugged

 

Real Beliefs

Atlas Shrugged is one of her top best-sellers that introduced so many new fans to Ayn and her content. It is one of her fewer fiction stories that while explaining her very real beliefs about certain topics, also describes a fictional dieselpunk story that Ayn came up with to make the book interesting to read.

Masterpiece

This is actually the last novel from Ayn as it was in the writing for nearly 12 years and may just actually be her masterpiece. In it, she explains the forming of her philosophical system Objectivism through the story of a world that is facing the problem of worsening economic conditions. It focuses mainly on a few characters that are trying to fix a US railroad crisis.

Unique Point of View

The characters and their problems are not the main messages of this book, but it is the unique point of view that Ayn has on our existence as humans and exploits our highest potentials. Ayn dives into deeper topics in the books such as whether the pursuit for profit is the root of all evil, what sexual passion actually is, topics such as reason, people’s faith in God, and plenty more mind-boggling topics such as these.

Spirituality and Philosophy

Overall, you will find that this turns out to be a mystery story, but not just any old normal murder or missing person mystery, this is a story that uncovers many secrets about man’s spirituality, philosophical revolutions, society, and much, much more. Chances are that you will have to read this book twice in order to grasp its full potential.

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The Fountainhead

 

First Major Hit

This is the book that brought Ayn so much fame as it was her first major hit and New York Times best-seller. The book is truly a masterpiece as almost all of Ayn’s books turn out to be thanks to her brilliant mind that can prove difficult to understand for some.

Howard Roark

The Fountainhead is the story of an architect by the name of Howard Roark who Rand describes as not hers, but the ideal man. Howard is an independent architect who counts on no one and is perfect at his job.

His way of life is individualistic and Rand tells us through him that she prefers the individualistic way of life rather than collectivism. She actually says that she finds it to be superior. Roark, like many, is opposed by people that he refers to as “second-handers”.

Characters

These people prefer to live by the standard and you can even say they are afraid of Roark’s lifestyle and independence and prefer not to take any unnecessary risks. This is when we meet some more characters who are second-handers.

We have Peter Keating, he is a former classmate of Howard’s. Peter does follow the trending and popular styles but often turns to Howard for help when he has a problem regarding design.

Attribute of Success

Then there is Ellsworth Toohey who is a socialist architect critic who uses his fame and influence as a critic to do whatever he can that will lead to the destruction of Roark’s career. Plenty more interesting characters come in this story in which Ayn presents the man’s ego as the primary attribute of success.

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Anthem

 

Horrifying Future

Anthem is another one of Ayn’s story that talks about the topic of individualism. This time she describes a world where all traces of the word and term individualism have been incinerated.

In this terrible and horrifying future, people don’t have their own names, no one is independent, and no one differs from each other as they are not divided by value, so everyone is the same.

Equality 7-2521

That might sound not that bad, but it gets pretty terrifying. In this world every major decision is made by a collective group, a committee, all people are forced to live in collectives. We meet a character called Equality 7-2521 who still has the sparks of an individualist burning inside him.

However, to even think of a life like that is one of the biggest sins they can commit. That is a crime that no one dares to execute. Well, no one dared until Equality 7-2521 who chooses to think for himself, eventually discovers electricity, and chooses his own woman to love. Having dared to choose a life like that, he has broken a terrible rule that results in a death sentence.

Unique Story

A lot of excitement awaits for you when you read on and find out what happens with Equality 7-2521. This is a story that you don’t see every day which is why we just had to put this one in our list about the best books by Ayn Rand.

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We the Living

 

Russian Totality

This book holds a great story that describes Ayn’s feelings about the totalitarian age of Russia. It is about a few people who choose to live their own lives with their own choices, not by the terrible system of living by what is decided for them. She explores the lives of three people who choose this new lifestyle.

Thinking for Yourself

The story gets interesting as we find out what happens to the people who disobey that system and what happens to the people who follow it blindly. Don’t get the wrong idea that Ayn is trying to talk politics in this book.

She is simply trying to make the people of that time to understand what it means to be an individual and think for yourself instead of following everything you don’t like as if you are a dumb sheep.

New Lifestyle

She dares to describe a new lifestyle that is definitely better for everyone as an individual so that everyone can find their own happiness and not serve for the happiness of the system that not many liked. She shows how it feels like to live a life of Socialism and shows everyone the benefits of that lifestyle through this amazing book.

You will find that she discusses these topics in many of her books and that her feelings for what she writes about are very real, powered by powerful emotions that she will never let go. Ayn has discovered how to get to the people with her wonderful books that are filled with very insightful content.

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The Romantic Manifesto

 

Collection of Essays

For the final choice of this list about the best books by Ayn Rand, we give you The Romantic Manifesto. This book is a collection of essays that focus on the topic of art. Ayn talks about what art is and how it can be described differently by anyone.

She explains how man simply needs art in his life and why that is so important. How art connects to everyone differently and on a personal level. In another chapter, Ayn describes in her essays how the unique understanding of one man’s world can be the single thing that shapes his creations.

Judging the Art

She then uses her knowledge of art and how she interprets it to show how she can judge art objectively and what to steer to when doing so. This book filled with many interesting essays about art definitely shows a new way to look at art and a way that is unique to Ayn and her philosophy.

It’s not uncommon to find something that is unique only to Ayn as she is definitely the type of person that takes inspiration from her own mind and always comes up with new and exciting content. In the very last essay that you will read in this book, you will find out about the goal of Ayn’s fiction writing and what she thinks about.

Mind-Blowing Author

If you ask me, I definitely think Ayn is an author who is a bit more difficult to understand as she uses complicated terms and language that is not common to most. She talks about many things, some of which I haven’t even heard of. But, in the end, Ayn is an author who is adored by many and who truly blows the minds of people who read her writing and its very unique style.

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