"At a time like this, we can't afford the luxury of thinking!"

I'm not going to make it.

I know I've read the required two books for March, but I really, really wanted to finish Atlas Shrugged today. Earlier this month I picked up where I left off (around page 300) and managed to plow through another 600 pages. Which, in and of itself, is quite a feat for me these days.

This morning: another 20 pages down thanks to a verrrrrrrrry late bus, which left only about 100 to go... Between the Max ride home and no plans this evening, I really thought it was going to happen.

Last week a coworker noticed what I was reading and asked how it was coming. "Ehhh, it's been great so far but she just got to 'utopia' and now it's feeling a bit like one of the later boring seasons of Lost." He mentioned something about a tedious soliloquy delivered over the radio. "I haven't gotten to that one yet but I've read a lot of 10-page soliloquies so far..." He just smiled and walked away.

This evening on the Max I finally reached the radio speech and flipped ahead out of curiosity.

FIFTY PAGES.

People, it's a FIFTY PAGE soliloquy. Skimming it briefly, it looks like the speaker sums up the first 922 pages in this fifty page soliloquy. Really? I could've read fifty pages instead of 900 and gotten the same message? REALLY?

I am so done with this book. I don't care what John Galt has to say, I don't care about the fate of Dagny Taggart who has three gorgeous, smart, rich men madly in love with her (world's tiniest violin!), I am tired of Jim Taggart screaming, and I know what happens to the railroads - the airlines take over and train tickets get wildly expensive.

That said, I'm not sad I attempted it. I won't try to insert my high school analysis of the politics of the story but it's oddly relevant with today's economy. Or maybe not so oddly? I've read that Rand was a libertarian but I really see a lot of socialist in her (the benevolent socialism I believe in, not the "so-not-socialism" everyone claims Obama is trying to instill upon our country). Or maybe it's just that I see a lot of anti-capitalism, which I totally get behind. I don't know, I haven't kept up with political definitions of late. I just agree that smart people who appreciate hard work should be entitled to profit whereas bloodsucking Washingtonians shouldn't make a single penny from things they steal from others.

As with The Fountainhead I loved the characters (well, most of the main ones). I wish I had their stoicism, honesty, brains and poker faces. If I could look certain coworkers in the eye and honestly say what I felt, like these characters consistently do, I'd either be fired in a heartbeat or made VP. Either one wouldn't be so bad.

Honestly, I probably will try to skim the last 50 pages or so tomorrow at lunch just for closure. I mean, 900 pages is quite a commitment to just abandon. But I might also have to cross War and Peace off The List. All this classic literature is just too time consuming when Jon Stewart can just sum it up for me via current events in daily 15 minute chunks.