I thought I remembered quite a lot of the story. But I got to the parts involving d'Anconia and either I've forgotten his portion of the plot (which would seem silly), or maybe I never quite picked up on his big picture goal.
I suspect that I noticed his "bad" deeds and simply dismissed him as a jerk. It will be interesting, as I continue reading, to see how much of the story I didn't pick up on before. If it's obvious, I'll feel like an idiot.
But this just goes to show how experience and perspective can affect ones view overtime, and I think when you can experience this with a book, it's a mark of good literature.
When you’re re-reading it, check in with the prior book club threads, enumerated above in Post #2. You can watch things evolve. Try your hand at some of the discussion topics.
I have been experiencing the same thing. We are going through the book after reading it myself back in the early 90’s. I’m picking up a LOT that I didn’t pick up the first time through. Although Rand often seems to state the same thing ad infinitum, to the point where I almost say out loud “I get it! Can we move on?”, but I also find that my tolerance for that has increased as we’ve gone through it and seen some of the nuance in the different treatments of the same thing.
Back then, I was reading it on the recommendation of a couple of people at work (ironically, who worked for the government in one form or another). I think there were times when I might have skimmed to get through sections that now, the way we’re going through it (me reading it out loud), I can not skim.
That, and this book club, have really added to the experience this time through.