Here are two interesting looks at Ayn Rand -- one and two.
I do really like Milton Friedman's piquant (and very quotable) opinion of Rand as "an utterly intolerant and dogmatic person who did a great deal of good."
For me, Rand reinforced rather than gave me my convictions. I was already sympathetic to libertarian ideas when I first read Rand, and I found Atlas Shrugged both a thrillingly comforting and mentally invigorating read. One of Rand's greatest contributions in that book (and, I suppose, through her work overall) is her celebration of the individual and his/her talents, skills, and potential, and also her bracingly clear articulation of the noxious (and unfortunately popular) idea that the individual must always yield to some vague collective demand in the name of the "good" of the collective -- even to the great personal detriment of the individual. As for the role of an overweening, all-consuming, all-intrusive, morally misguided government in the destruction of its own country and people, well, I don't really have to elaborate, do I?
Anyhoo, I'll readily tell you that I'm a great part libertarian, though I won't go as far as to say that I'm a pure Objectivist.
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