My wife has friends who were...socialists.

Current book: Atlas Shrugged
Pages read: 149 - 245

Including yesterday, this section basically illustrates Dagny Taggert and Hank Rearden's struggle to get the old Rio Norte line rebuilt using Rearden metal. They achieve the goal, but not before Rand belabors the point to hell and back that the government is trying as hard as it can to get in their way, largely through misguided efforts to equalize the market. In the end, Dagny Taggert breaks the line off of Taggert Transcontinental and makes it a separate business in order to prevent James from screwing around with it. She names it the John Galt line, after the colloquial phrase "Who is John Galt?," which means something along the lines of "Why does anything happen?" After the line is built and first train is run, with resounding success, Dagny and Hank Reardon fall into bed together.

That's the basic plot of this section, but in reality it's yet more defense of the free market and the fact that competition and profit-seeking benefit everyone, while socialism and a controlled market are artificial and damaging. Yeah. So, there you have it.

Also, Hank Rearden has some messed up ideas about sex. More on that tomorrow.