Bill the Drill & Publius ran the original discussion series a LONG time ago here on FR. Their chapter-by-chapter method with explanations made Ayn’s work very digestible.
They expanded the FR posting into a book, I believe.
The book, “Who is John Galt: A Navigational Guide to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged,” is available at Amazon. Billthedrill and I could use the royalties.
That’s right! They did put a book together on it!
Like the author of this piece, I got a creeping sense of familiarity throughout Atlas Shrugged that grew as the story proceeded. It's very revealing that what resonates isn't the physical circumstances - Rand wrote of a time when there was no airline travel and mass communications was only the radio - but rather the cultural and philosophical maneuverings and the impossible vanities of a parasitical would-be ruling class that finally ended up dragging down the host society. As John Galt says himself in the novel, he isn't actually changing anything, he's merely accelerating it.
For those suggesting that Rand needed a good editor, she had one: Bennet Cerf (remember him from Hollywood Squares?). She simply didn't listen to him. Hence the infamous Chapter 26. Publius and I have a lot to say about that one.
Who Is John Galt? is intended to be a companion book, not a sort of Cliff's Notes. Like the author of this piece, you can't avoid the 1100 page monster but perhaps like a lot of us it turns out not to be so impossible after all.
I think it’s here:
Our First FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged
A Publius Essay | 15 January 2009 | Publius
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2165176/posts