I salute you in your intellectual adventure. I stumbled by chance on Atlas Shrugged while volunteering for some months in a kibbutz in Israel (a kibbutz is a community based on a communist-socialist premise), which is quite ironic. Since then I have read almost everything from Ayn Rand and Leornard Peikoff. I suggest that if you really want to understand Objectivism, start with her non fiction works: Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, and Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, by Leonard Peikoff (here you will find the whole system, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics,politics and art- if you master this book you should be able to destroy any other argument), another one I love is “The Romantic Manifesto” (the only rational description and evaluation of art, as it is and ought to be). For daily applications or thoughts on political events, that can be applied today: “Philosophy: Who needs it” and “For the New Intelectual”. And an obvious one: “The Virtue of Selfishness”

I wish you success!