The fountainhead

I knew in advance that I disagreed with Rand's political views (nothing I shy away from), but after listening to somewhere between 25% to 50% of the audio book, I found the writing so awful (except for the first chapter or two that were actually pretty well written) that I returned the audiobook for a refund... and it is not at all in my nature to ask for refunds. After chapter 2, the book reads like a libertarian grocery list. Read "Puerto Paz" instead.

For the first time in my life I felt like the book was written for me. The message is simple.

Do hard things. Love what you do. Make no compromises or it will corrupt you.

Listen, but don't repeat. Choose facts over opinions. You lose freedom when you repeat opinions of other people.

I think only the Bible has had a more profound effect on my life than this book.
Masterpiece.

I wasn't very happy with the ending. I felt like the book started off strong and ended up straying from the main plot only to become a mouth piece for political/philosophic narration. Not that I necessary disagree with Ayn Rand's ideals, but it seemed sloppy to end the book as it did. This book was at least 4 stars throughout most of it, but I couldn't bring myself to give it 4 stars by the end.

I read this mostly because one of my students back in high school was reading it. She was reading it for an essay contest, so in order to help out, I felt I needed to read the book as well. When I read it, I found myself identifying with the character of Roark at times and his struggle against convention. However, not the greatest piece of fiction (I think it was because of the love story elements; it is not my favorite genre), in my opinion. And yet, the book did give me a lot to think about at the time, which was a time when I felt I was surrounded by a lot of mediocrity.