I read Fountainhead and really enjoyed it. I started to think I might be interested in her philosophy. I had an older coworker when I was an intern who was VERY into Ayn Rand and Objectivism, and we were having conversations about the philosophy.
Then I read Atlas Shrugged. Holy shit did I hate it. That book made it quite clear how stupid and unrealistic her philosophy was, and also made me rethink my opinion of that coworker who was really into her.
I thought it was a terrible book, even regardless of her wild-ass philosophy. Her characters were flat, and their dialogue was not remotely realistic. The book was overly long and said the same thing a thousand different ways to hammer home her point. I similarly didn’t enjoy Catch 22, since he made the same joke over and over again (kind of the point, I know, but I just didn’t enjoy the repetition). I did enjoy Fountainhead, though. I thought it was a much better book.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
While it was overly dramatic and questionably factual, it opened my eyes to how foreign governments are manipulated by the US to benefit corporations. I don’t know how much it “changed” my views, but it definitely changed how I saw the world and how I interpreted specific news stories.