Varun's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 07 Aug 2024 12:12:48 -0700 60 Varun's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Doors of Perception 3188964 The Doors of Perception is a philosophical essay, released as a book, by Aldous Huxley. First published in 1954, it details his experiences when taking mescaline.

The book takes the form of Huxley's recollection of a mescaline trip that took place over the course of an afternoon in May 1953. The book takes its title from a phrase in William Blake's 1793 poem 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'.

Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, which range from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision". He also incorporates later reflections on the experience and its meaning for art and religion.]]>
208 Aldous Huxley Varun 0 to-read 3.91 1956 The Doors of Perception
author: Aldous Huxley
name: Varun
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1956
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Power of your Subconscious Mind and Other Works]]> 19224184 421 Joseph Murphy Varun 1 4.29 1963 The Power of your Subconscious Mind and Other Works
author: Joseph Murphy
name: Varun
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1963
rating: 1
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<![CDATA[Jenseits von Gut und Böse/Zur Geneologie der Moral]]> 255746 440 Friedrich Nietzsche 3110051753 Varun 5 4.29 1887 Jenseits von Gut und Böse/Zur Geneologie der Moral
author: Friedrich Nietzsche
name: Varun
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1887
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/06/19
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<![CDATA[Overschooled and Undereducated]]> 5143844 John S.C. Abbott Varun 0 to-read 4.00 2008 Overschooled and Undereducated
author: John S.C. Abbott
name: Varun
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/05/31
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Autobiography of a Yogi 639864
Autobiography of a Yogi is at once a beautifully written account of an exceptional life and a profound introduction to the ancient science of Yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation. The author clearly explains the subtle but definite laws behind both the ordinary events of everyday life and the extraordinary events commonly termed miracles. His absorbing life story thus becomes the background for a penetrating and unforgettable look at the ultimate mysteries of human existence.

Considered a modern spiritual classic, the book has been translated into more than twenty languages and is widely used as a text and reference work in colleges and universities. A perennial bestseller since it was first published sixty years ago, Autobiography of a Yogi has found its way into the hearts of millions of readers around the world.]]>
503 Paramahansa Yogananda 0876120834 Varun 0 currently-reading 4.22 1946 Autobiography of a Yogi
author: Paramahansa Yogananda
name: Varun
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1946
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason]]> 51934 Madness and Civilization, Foucault's first book and his finest accomplishment, will change the way in which you think about society. Evoking shock, pity and fascination, it might also make you question the way you think about yourself.]]> 304 Michel Foucault 0415253853 Varun 0 to-read 3.85 1961 Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
author: Michel Foucault
name: Varun
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1961
rating: 0
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One Hundred Years of Solitude 320 417 Gabriel García Márquez Varun 0 to-read 4.10 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Varun
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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The Satanic Verses 12781
From the back cover.]]>
561 Salman Rushdie 0312270828 Varun 0 to-read 3.73 1988 The Satanic Verses
author: Salman Rushdie
name: Varun
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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Beyond Good and Evil 11059339 152 Friedrich Nietzsche Varun 0 to-read 3.98 1886 Beyond Good and Evil
author: Friedrich Nietzsche
name: Varun
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1886
rating: 0
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The Book Thief 19063 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

(Note: this title was not published as YA fiction)]]>
592 Markus Zusak Varun 4 4.38 2005 The Book Thief
author: Markus Zusak
name: Varun
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2005
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Caste: The Lies That Divide Us]]> 54503952
Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.]]>
487 Isabel Wilkerson 0141995475 Varun 0 to-read 4.51 2020 Caste: The Lies That Divide Us
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Varun
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Secret Language of Birthdays: Personology Profiles for Each Day of the Year]]> 126811
The 366 personality profiles in The Secret Language of Birthdays are based on a combination of astrology, numerology, the tarot, and Gary Goldschneider's many years of observation of more than 14,000 people, including contemporary and historical figures. Goldschneider's theory of "personology" proposes that all of life is cyclical: people born on the same day occupy the same point in the year's cycle and thus share certain characteristics.

Learn what famous personalities were born on your birthday....Study your astrological sign and your personology profile....Your strengths, weaknesses, and major concerns will be illuminated while you are given practical advice and spiritual guidance. While you study your profile, you will find it hard to resist examining those of family, friends, colleagues, and favorite celebrities.

Non one who reads this book can feel left out, since each one of us has a birthday. The Secret Language of Birthdays may help to bring people to a better understanding of themselves and of others, including those living now, those who have gone before, and even those yet to come. The Secret Language of Birthdays is truly a celebration of our differences and similarities as human beings.]]>
832 Gary Goldschneider 0670858579 Varun 5 4.18 1994 The Secret Language of Birthdays: Personology Profiles for Each Day of the Year
author: Gary Goldschneider
name: Varun
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1994
rating: 5
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<![CDATA[The Secret Language of Relationships: Your Complete Personology Guide to Any Relationship with Anyone]]> 584019 819 Gary Goldschneider 0670875279 Varun 0 to-read 4.20 1997 The Secret Language of Relationships: Your Complete Personology Guide to Any Relationship with Anyone
author: Gary Goldschneider
name: Varun
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/01/30
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Jitterbug Perfume 8682 Jitterbug Perfume is an epic, which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn't conclude until nine o'clock tonight [Paris time]. It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle. The bottle is blue, very, very old, and embossed with the image of a goat-horned god. If the liquid in the bottle is actually is the secret essence of the universe, as some folks seem to think, it had better be discovered soon because it is leaking and there is only a drop or two left.]]> 342 Tom Robbins 1842430351 Varun 0 to-read 4.24 1984 Jitterbug Perfume
author: Tom Robbins
name: Varun
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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I Too Had a Love Story 19427193 212 Ravinder Singh 8188575704 Varun 0 3.62 2007 I Too Had a Love Story
author: Ravinder Singh
name: Varun
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/05/11
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<![CDATA[A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)]]> 11133581
The Seven Kingdoms are divided by revolt and blood feud, and winter approaches like an angry beast. Beyond the Northern borders, wildlings leave their villages to gather in the ice and stone wasteland of the Frostfangs. From there, the renegade Brother Mance Rayder will lead them South towards the Wall.

The men of the Night’s Watch are ready for the coming of a great cold and the walking corpses that travel with it. But now they face a horde of wildlings twenty-thousand strong � hungry savage people steeped in the dark magic of the haunted wilderness � poised to invade the Kingdom of the North where Robb Stark wears his new-forged crown.

But Robb’s defences are ranged against attack from the South, the land of House Stark’s enemies the Lannisters. His sisters are trapped there, dead or likely yet to die, at the whim of the Lannister boy-king Joffrey or his depraved mother Cersei, regent of the Iron Throne. Cersei’s ambition is unfettered while the dwarf Tyrion Lannister fights for his life, a victim of treachery.

And on the other side of the ocean, the last of the Targaryens rears the dragons she hatched from her husband’s funeral pyre. Daenerys Stormborn will return to the land of her birth to avenge the murder of her father, the last Dragon King on the Iron Throne.]]>
1218 George R.R. Martin Varun 4 4.57 2000 A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Varun
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2015/08/23
date added: 2015/08/23
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<![CDATA[Of Course I Love You...! Till I Find Someone Better...]]> 9292753 230 Durjoy Datta Varun 0 3.32 2008 Of Course I Love You...! Till I Find Someone Better...
author: Durjoy Datta
name: Varun
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/08/02
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<![CDATA[A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)]]> 11059676 here.

HBO’s hit series A GAME OF THRONES is based on George R. R. Martin’s internationally bestselling series A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A CLASH OF KINGS is the second volume in the series.

Throughout Westeros, the cold winds are rising.

From the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding lands of Winterfell, chaos reigns as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms stake their claims through tempest, turmoil and war.

As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky - a comet the colour of blood and flame - five factions struggle for control of a divided land. Brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night.

Against a backdrop of incest, fratricide, alchemy and murder, the price of glory is measured in blood.]]>
931 George R.R. Martin Varun 4 4.48 1998 A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Varun
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1998
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers]]> 31795
Will Durant chronicles the ideas of the great thinkers, the economic and intellectual environments which influenced them, and the personal traits and adventures out of which each philosophy grew. Durant’s insight and wit never cease to dazzle; The Story of Philosophy is an essential book for anyone who wishes to understand the history and development of philosophical ideas in the Western world.]]>
704 Will Durant 0671739166 Varun 0 to-read 4.16 1926 The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers
author: Will Durant
name: Varun
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1926
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Harry Potter Boxed Set, Books 1-5 (Harry Potter, #1-5)]]> 8 2690 J.K. Rowling 0439682584 Varun 0 4.71 2003 Harry Potter Boxed Set, Books 1-5 (Harry Potter, #1-5)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Varun
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/07/02
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Can Love Happen Twice? 13041934
On Valentine’s Day, a radio station in Chandigarh hosts a very special romantic chat show. Ravin and his three best friends are invited as guests to talk about Ravin’s love story. But surprisingly everyone apart from Ravin turns up. As the show goes live, there is only one question in every listener’s mind: what has happened to Ravin?

To answer this question the three friends begin reading from a handwritten copy of Ravin’s incomplete second book—the entire city listens breathlessly, unable to believe the revelations that follow.

This highly anticipated sequel by Ravinder Singh is an emotional rollercoaster that bravely explores the highs and lows of love.]]>
224 Ravinder Singh 0143417231 Varun 0 3.28 2011 Can Love Happen Twice?
author: Ravinder Singh
name: Varun
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/07/02
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Just Friends 11238259 248 Sumrit Shahi Varun 0 3.36 2010 Just Friends
author: Sumrit Shahi
name: Varun
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2010
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The Kite Runner 77203 371 Khaled Hosseini 159463193X Varun 0 4.34 2003 The Kite Runner
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Varun
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at: 2014/09/17
date added: 2014/09/17
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Predator - Horn OK Please 22240106
How, oh how, she wished she had never met him online. The mutilated body of a young woman stirs up this sleepy little vineyard town. Another girl is now missing. It’s happened here before. Old rumors, superstitions surface. The legend of the beast, the curse of the devil. But Inspector Khan has his keen eye on Joe, the owner of one of the country’s biggest vineyards, and his edgy, disturbed son, Chris.

Do they have anything to do with these murders? If he stays on the trail, Inspector Khan must face the ghosts of his own past. Can he do it? The almost-famous five � Chief, Derek, Goose, Hound and Motormouth � are following a lead of their own. Will they be able to stop the madness that comes alive at night?

Predator is a gory tale of megalomania and obsession and about the dangers lurking in the shadows of the virtual world. Set against the backdrop of a thriving wine industry, this is a dark and disturbing story from the author of the ‘Horn OK Please� series.]]>
306 Kartik Iyengar Varun 0 to-read 4.00 2014 Predator - Horn OK Please
author: Kartik Iyengar
name: Varun
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/09/10
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The Fountainhead 2122
This modern classic is the story of intransigent young architect Howard Roark, whose integrity was as unyielding as granite...of Dominique Francon, the exquisitely beautiful woman who loved Roark passionately, but married his worst enemy...and of the fanatic denunciation unleashed by an enraged society against a great creator. As fresh today as it was then, Rand’s provocative novel presents one of the most challenging ideas in all of fiction—that man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress...

“A writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly...This is the only novel of ideas written by an American woman that I can recall.”—The New York Times]]>
704 Ayn Rand Varun 5 3.87 1943 The Fountainhead
author: Ayn Rand
name: Varun
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1943
rating: 5
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Inferno (Robert Langdon, #4) 17212231 ‘Seek and ye shall find.�

With these words echoing in his head, eminent Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon awakes in a hospital bed with no recollection of where he is or how he got there. Nor can he explain the origin of the macabre object that is found hidden in his belongings.

A threat to his life will propel him and a young doctor, Sienna Brooks, into a breakneck chase across the city of Florence. Only Langdon’s knowledge of hidden passageways and ancient secrets that lie behind its historic facade can save them from the clutches of their unknown pursuers.

With only a few lines from Dante’s dark and epic masterpiece, The Inferno, to guide them, they must decipher a sequence of codes buried deep within some of the most celebrated artefacts of the Renaissance � sculptures, paintings, buildings � to find the answers to a puzzle which may, or may not, help them save the world from a terrifying threat�

Set against an extraordinary landscape inspired by one of history’s most ominous literary classics, Inferno is Dan Brown’s most compelling and thought-provoking novel yet, a breathless race-against-time thriller that will grab you from page one and not let you go until you close the book.]]>
463 Dan Brown 0385537859 Varun 4 3.88 2013 Inferno (Robert Langdon, #4)
author: Dan Brown
name: Varun
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2014/06/15
date added: 2014/07/22
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4.48 Psychosis 146548 4.48 Psychosis sees the ultimate narrowing of Sarah Kane's focus in her work. The struggle of the self to remain intact has moved in her work from civil war, into the family, into the couple, into the individual, and finally into the theatre of phychosis: the mind itself. This play was written in 1999 shortly before the playwright took her own life at age 28. On the page, the piece looks like a poem. No characters are named, and even their number is unspecified. It could be a journey through one person's mind, or an interview between a doctor and his patient.]]> 48 Sarah Kane 0413748308 Varun 0 to-read 4.26 2000 4.48 Psychosis
author: Sarah Kane
name: Varun
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/07/16
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Shantaram 33600
So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.

Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.

As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power.

Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas—this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart. Based on the life of the author, it is by any measure the debut of an extraordinary voice in literature.]]>
936 Gregory David Roberts 192076920X Varun 4 philosphy 4.27 2003 Shantaram
author: Gregory David Roberts
name: Varun
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2014/07/03
date added: 2014/07/09
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<![CDATA[Be Careful What You Wish For (The Clifton Chronicles, #4)]]> 18404285
Bestselling author Jeffrey Archer's Be Careful What You Wish For opens with Harry Clifton and his wife Emma rushing to hospital to learn the fate of their son Sebastian, who has been involved in a fatal car accident. But who died, Sebastian or his best friend Bruno?
When Ross Buchanan is forced to resign as chairman of the Barrington Shipping Company, Emma Clifton wants to replace him. But Don Pedro Martinez intends to install his puppet, the egregious Major Alex Fisher, in order to destroy the Barrington family firm just as the company plans to build its new luxury liner, the MV Buckingham.

Back in London, Harry and Emma's adopted daughter wins a scholarship to the Slade Academy of Art where she falls in love with a fellow student, Clive Bingham, who asks her to marry him. Both families are delighted until Priscilla Bingham, Jessica's future mother-in-law, has a visit from an old friend, Lady Virginia Fenwick, who drops her particular brand of poison into the wedding chalice.

Then, without warning, Cedric Hardcastle, a bluff Yorkshireman who no one has come across before, takes his place on the board of Barringtons. This causes an upheaval that none of them could have anticipated, and will change the lives of every member of the Clifton and Barrington families. Hardcastle's first decision is who to support to become the next chairman of the board: Emma Clifton or Major Alex Fisher? And with that decision, the story takes yet another twist that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Be Careful What You Wish For showcases the master storyteller's talent as never before � when the Clifton and Barrington families march forward into the sixties, in this epic tale of love, revenge, ambition and betrayal.

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387 Jeffrey Archer 1250034485 Varun 0 to-read 4.03 2014 Be Careful What You Wish For (The Clifton Chronicles, #4)
author: Jeffrey Archer
name: Varun
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2014
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Atlas Shrugged 662 This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators?

Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world’s motor � and the motive power of every man? You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the characters in this story.

Tremendous in its scope, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life � from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy � to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction � to the philosopher who becomes a pirate � to the composer who gives up his career on the night of his triumph � to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad � to the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels.

You must be prepared, when you read this novel, to check every premise at the root of your convictions.

This is a mystery story, not about the murder � and rebirth � of man’s spirit. It is a philosophical revolution, told in the form of an action thriller of violent events, a ruthlessly brilliant plot structure and an irresistible suspense. Do you say this is impossible? Well, that is the first of your premises to check.]]>
1168 Ayn Rand 0452011876 Varun 5 3.67 1957 Atlas Shrugged
author: Ayn Rand
name: Varun
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1957
rating: 5
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<![CDATA[UNIX Concepts and Applications]]> 574783 Sumitabha Das Varun 0 to-read 3.94 2003 UNIX Concepts and Applications
author: Sumitabha Das
name: Varun
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/12/20
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