Yes...she's not an easy read. But definitely worth it! My theater teacher last semester talked about her and asked how many of us had read her and so little of the class of like 200 raised their hands. He then mentioned that if it had been like 10 years ago, half or more of the class would have read her. A semester before that, I was reading The Virtue of Selfishness right before my graduate philosophy seminar began and one of the grad students commented that I wouldn't find any people in the class who'd like her. I have this sense that she's fallen out of popularity with academia and I'm not entirely sure why.

As far as how she's changed my perception of things, well, most of it is towards Christianity and religion in general. But, it's also allowed me to not feel so bad when I decide to do things for myself or be ashamed about being proud of what I've done and more comfortable with speaking about myself. Granted, I now come off as what some would call arrogant, but she's also helped me more easily shrug off such judgments from people. Now whether such judgments are valid is another question entirely, but it's allowed me to be, overall, more comfortable in my shoes and doing what I do...and doing what I always wanted to do.