Currently reading
A London Family, 1870-1900: A Trilogy
The Cellist of Sarajevo
Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
All the Names
A History of the World in 100 Objects
Down the Garden Path
Virtue Betray'd, Or, Anna Bullen
Year of Wonders
Swallows and Amazons
Illusion in java
If I could, I'd give this book less than one star. I can't stand writers who bludgeon their readers with a philosophy or moral standpoint. Rand, who repeatedly touts the idea of streamlining and efficiency in art, spends over SEVEN HUNDRED pages saying what could have been said in less than 100. But as condescending writers often do, she felt her audience needed to be rammed in the head with her ideas over and over and over. If I hadn't had to read the book for a class, I never would have finished it. Cardboard, stereotypical characters; stilted, long-winded dialog; and an "objectivist" philosophy that glorifies selfishness, ego, and angular facial features. As one reviewer put it, "Any dogma is the enemy of art. If you read Rand's three major novels -- "We the Living", "The Fountainhead", and "Atlas Shrugged" -- you can see her dogma becoming more and more rigid, and her characters less and less human." Ladies, if a man says he loves The Fountainhead and wants to be like Howard Roark, run as fast as you can and don't look back. You'll be glad you did.