From an articles over at Violet Books about the Reader's list.
Quote:
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The other source was a "populist list" which Randians & Scientologists simultaneously inspired by crabbing at Random House after they promoted the 100 Most Important American Books & failed to put Hubbard or Rand on the list. When the Modern Library subdivision got deluged with complaints from Randians & Scientologists, Modern Library responded by setting up an on-line voting system that Randians & Scientologists blitzed to try to get Rand & Hubbard top ratings. The ad hoc net-poll was not well publicized, was not a "study" in even the loosest sense of the word, it was self-selecting for Randians & net-nerds. Therefore all of Ayn Rand's books placed in the top quarter of the list, & Atlas Shrugged placed #1 (the bible did not place at all, so Rand is bigger than God). I remember well when this voting-page was first put up & Usenutter Randians were telling each other how to pad the voting right away. Modern Library liked the free publicity & called this the "Populist List" but never misrepresented it as any kind of "study" nor did they suggest it had any credibility to match the actual best-100 list which did not include Rand at all.
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http://www.violetbooks.com/aynrand.html