One dedicated fan literally wrote “Read Ayn Rand” across the country. Ayn Rand enthusiast Nick Newcomen celebrated his favorite author by using a GPS tracking device to trace the giant letters in the Google Earth picture embedded above–a tribute visible from space satellites.
The Guardian reported: “Using a GPS tracking device as a ‘pen’, Newcomen took about 10 days to complete each word, turning on his GPS logger when he wanted to write and turning it off between letters, videoing himself at landmarks along the route for documentation. He drove 12,328 miles in total, across 30 American states, inputting the data once he was finished into Google Earth to create the world’s largest book advertisement.”
On his website, Newcomen includes an interactive feature with the image: by clicking on each letter, a viewer can see the cities Newcomen drove through to make that letter appear. He also lists ten reasons why everyone should read Rand.
Ayn Rand is a Russian-American author known for two best-selling novels, Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead. She is also known for creating a philosophy she calls “Objectivism.” In 1982, Rand passed away at age 77.