• • Ach du Belieber 
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The Fountainhead  | Don't know much about history: On this day in 1943, Ayn Rand's novel, "The Fountainhead" was first published. It would be almost 70 years before Rand’s cryptic dedication in her novel would be understood: “I love you, Justin; I’m a Belieber.”  

• Oscar-hopeful short films at turns fun and engaging 
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"Maggie Simpson in 'The Longest Daycare'" is the Simpsons entry, a very funny and rather ominous little number about the baby of the family having a rough go of it during an afternoon at the Ayn Rand Daycare Center.  

• • • Motherhood is the definition of self-sacrifice 
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Atheism  |Atlas Shrugged  |Egoism  |Personal life  | My 7-year-old was bragging to certain people that he was reading “The Hunger Games” on the sly. Of course I was concerned, and I remain hopeful that he only got through a few pages. The adventures of Katniss and Peeta have now been safely moved from our living room to the garage. But that got me to thinking about other books floating around our house that could possibly pollute a young person’s mind. Anything by Ayn Rand would be top of my list. Ayn Rand wrote “Atlas Shrugged” and founded the philosophy of Objectivism. She taught that the worst thing a human could do was engage in self-sacrifice.  

• • Three Snohomish County authors pick books for their warm weather lists 
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The Fountainhead  | When Neil Low hangs up his day-job hat as a Seattle cop, the Snohomish man sits down to write thrilling police mysteries. He said everyone falsely assumes he reads Raymond Chandler. Instead, these books are on his summer list: [....] “The Fountainhead,” by Ayn Rand: The beautifully written epic about rivalry.  

• Gifts for the governor 
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Atlas Shrugged  | They started arriving the day Christine Gregoire took the oath as governor. And they haven’t stopped coming. Books, artwork and holiday ornaments. Caps, T-shirts and quilts. [....] In 2009, a Mercer Island man sent her Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” and others sent her writings of former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole and political commentator Arianna Huffington.  

• Download books free and listen at leisure 

Atlas Shrugged  | Janet Evanovich’s “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen” topped the Sno-Isle Library’s list of downloaded books last month. [....] Other favorites for July included Audrey Niffenegger’s “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” “The Host” by Stephanie Meyer, “The Associate” by John Grisham, “Vision in White” by Nora Roberts and “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand.  

• • Greenspan should have stuck with the clarinet 
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The Fountainhead  |Capitalism  |Personal life  | Lots of young intellectuals read Rand's books and enjoyed her politically incorrect hymn to selfishness. But they moved on. Not, it would seem, Greenspan. He gave up on music as a profession, studied economics and joined Rand's Manhattan salon. All three decisions seemed to come together in his later support for unregulated derivatives, or what the more earth-bound Warren Buffett called "financial weapons of mass destruction." Once derivatives got a green light, it took a mere eight years for the edifice of regulation-by-self-interest to blow itself up.