Some time ago I heard the tapes of the class Ayn Rand taught on which this book is based. It was a fascinating experience, and put to rest the notion that Ayn Rand's literary tastes were narrow. Though she endorsed only a handful of writers in her book on esthetics, The Romantic Manifesto, she read widely and richly enjoyed a wide variety of fiction; a few that come to mind are Ben Hecht, Isak Dinesen, Noel Coward.

The advice to writers is illuminating for both writers and readers, and her account of ways in which writers procrastinate is hilarious--not an adjective one associates with Ayn Rand!