The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology and The Virtue of Selfishness.

As far as I'm concerned, her entire argument falls apart when she starts to argue that altruism is immoral. Once you remove altruism as being a virtue and argue for a society where everyone accomplishes everything solely based on their own ability, I don't see how it can be argued that you're advocating anything but social darwinism (just with a different approach).

That's not to say that there weren't some useful things that were said, but in my life it offers very little value and none of the juicy parts are original.

As for why it makes me worry: the ones who often cite her as an influence and publicly sing her praises are very often the ones who are so off the mark in understanding what she actually said.

Be fair! The woman was such a godawful writer that it's hard to get to grips with any of her ideas for their own sake.

Do you think it's a valid criticism then to complain about Ayn Rand's ideas when you haven't been able to comprehend them?

Sure! -- or would you have me believe every Randite who criticizes Marx has read his impenetrable opus? Being responsible for what posterity does to one's logos is an occupational hazard of the propheting trade.

Anyone who criticizes Marx without having first studied Marx should not be thought highly of. The degree to which you have studied something is roughly proportional to how much criticism you can reasonably heap on it.

I cannot launch an in-depth criticism of, say, Finnish politics because I have not studied Finnish politics in any detail.

I can give a limited criticism of Robert Greene, because I have studied a selection of his writings.