>After watching the video you posted, I watch the video of the Mike Wallace interview with her in 1959. And it is amazing how consistent (and of course eloquent) she is throughout such a span of time. Truly remarkable woman.
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>I agree. I've watchted the Wallace and Snyder interviews, as well as the Donahue interview (though in fairness, Rand was very ill by the time of the Donahue interview, and she had just lost her husband, so it was hard for her just to do that interview).
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>Rand's views never waivered - and many of her predictions have come true.
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>Rand is one of the greatest writers and thinkers of all time. I admire her work more than any other writer - she also helped me to appreciate some literature that I might otherwise have never cared about.

She has certainly influenced many readers. (Especially gearheads for some reason). She was no great stylist, though, so I would hesitate to put her in the pantheon.

Here is someone I think you would like. Not a classic stylist, either, but his books really are hard to put down -- Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. Reacher is a hard guy who appeals to both men and women. Ex special forces, lives life on his own terms, moves about with no fixed address. The only thing he carries with him is a toothbrush. Taciturn. Probably the most common line in the series: "Reacher said nothing."