That's funny :o) Your Ayn Raynd stuff cracks me up. Now for one of the (real) most famous works of fiction (definitely topping Ayn Rand by far): Spoken like a true Walter Skinner (if you've never seen the X-Files, that won't make much sense) :)
Some facts about Atlas Shrugged alone....
- While not scientific, polls and surveys by different book clubs and even the Library of Congress have Atlas as a (distant) second, behind the Bible
- Somewhere around 7.5 million copies sold (and what is significant is that over a million copies have sold just in the last 2 years)
As for your little literary practical joke, I'll see that and raise you....
Comte de Guiche: "Have you read Don Quixote"?
Cyrano: "I have, and found myself the hero"
Comte de Guiche: "Be so good as to read once more the chapter of the windmills... Windmills, remember, if you fight with them... "
Cyrano: "My enemies change, then, with every wind?"
Comte de Guiche: "...may swing round their huge arms and cast you down into the mire! "
Cyrano: "Or up, among the stars! "