I have read Atlas Shrugged twice now, and it is a really nice treatment of guilt, especially unearned guilt. It is less useful as a treatise on humans.

Many, many people hate it, but most of those who hate it has not read it - they would be shocked, for example, to know that one of her heroes pays his workers more than the norm and more than what the other unions require (he does so, so that he can have the best workers), and how the heroes are not above, or unable to, do manual work.

Atlas Shrugged is one of those books that is often life-changing. Whether that is positive or not depends wildly upon the reader and their situation.

Other books I'd put in that category are Fight Club and Walden

+1 for Walden. You don't have to go live in a cabin in the woods to get a ton of benefit from that book. One of the books that helped me see the world with new eyes.

So what is the big deal about Fight Club? I've heard so much about it but haven't read it yet; trying to decide if it's worth the time.

It's not a huge commitment. Maybe 3 hours nonstop. The movie completely subverts the book, in my mind

I've read both books. I personally didn't find them to be well written, however they convey what they are trying to convey well enough. If anything, people should read them to better understand how libertarians of the Objectivist streak view the world. It would be eye-opening to say the least.

These books present ideas that ought to be explored, especially by those who might disagree with them.