Isn't a lot of Rush's music based on Ayn Rand? I may be wrong about that...

Sure is, Neil Peart used to be a big fan. Not so much anymore though.

Some amazing music, that. I'm not familiar firsthand with Rand, so is, for example, "philosophers and plowman each must know his part to shape a new reality", a Randesque sentiment?

I usually have to re-read something several times to understand it as I typically feel disconnected from my body and reality to a point I cannot concentrate. When I can feel my brain never stops thinking and going off on various thought trails so it's nearly impossible to concentrate anyway.

Neil Peart: For me, Rand's writing was an affirmation that it’s alright to totally believe in something and live for it and not compromise. It was a simple as that. On that 2112 album, again I was in my early 20s. I was a kid. Now I call myself a bleeding heart libertarian. Because I do believe in the principles of Libertarianism as an ideal – because I’m an idealist. Paul Theroux’s definition of a cynic is a disappointed idealist. So as you go through past your 20s, your idealism is going to be disappointed many many times. And so, I’ve brought my view and also – I’ve just realized this – Libertarianism as I understood it was very good and pure and we’re all going to be successful and generous to the less fortunate and it was, to me, not dark or cynical. But then I soon saw, of course, the way that it gets twisted by the flaws of humanity. And that’s when I evolve now into … a bleeding heart Libertarian. That’ll do.

I'm trying to read Lovecraft and Poe currently, but my vocabulary isn't too extensive, so many of the words I encounter are strange to me. Every word I don't know, I look up in the dictionary, even if it's not vital to my understanding of the plot. How many of you guys do this?

For as long as I can remember I've kept a dictionary close by. There's one on the shelf behind me 5 feet away right now. You should have one with you whenever you read. It's a great way to expand your vocabulary.

I find Poe a lot easier to read than Lovecraft. I'm a bigger fan of Lovecraft though, and think his "The Colour Out of Space" is one of the most terrifying short stories ever.

Not too often. I've got a pretty good vocabulary, and I don't read as much nonfiction as I probably should, so I don't come across words I don't know too often. When I do, I can usually guess its meaning from the context, but if I can't, then yeah, I'll look it up.

Stay on with the Lovecraft though. Poe's cool and all, but his stories pretty much always have rational(ish) explanations, while Lovecraft's are always bat**** insane.

I love that story. The "villain" is one of his most ambiguous, so you never really know what the hell its true nature is. I've been halfway through "Shadow Over Innsmouth" for a while now, as I tend to get into a book and then get distracted and leave it for months on end, but even so, that might just be my fav. It's narrative is one of his most developed, and you can really imagine yourself in the story (You ever spend ten minutes on Thesaurus.com, desperately looking for adjectives, that you can almost but not quite remember, and come up with nothing?).

Will have to read this. Thanks for the reminder about it.

I've often wondered what it would have been like to spend an evening with Lovecraft sipping brandy and just talking about "stuff" with him. Was the dude able to carry on normal conversations?

I usually read each page at least two or three times because my mind tends to wander while I'm reading... Which kind of sucks because I love to read. :(

Ok, that may be an exaggeration but it happens enough to be notable.