Finally.... The moment I finished reading The Fountainhead, I couldn't help bursting into laughter, which shocked my deskmate because she hadn't seen me laughing for a long time, especially when I was reading the book.

   Seven hundred pages with letters as small as baby ants, the book defintely deserved to be called "eye-killer". I started the book last Sunday, and even though I spent almost all of my spare time reading it, it still took me about four days to finish reading.

   The book is recommended by the Hotchkiss English department. I googled the book at first, finding out that it was one of the 20th century masterpieces with a plot intriguing enough. It was pretty intimidating the first time I opened the book, with its thickness and the petit letters (forgive me, I'm a little obsessed with French these days). However, it took less than a minute for me to be totally hooked by it. And the next thing I remembered, I just couldn't get enough of it.

   THe book talks about the story of Howard Roark, a young and rebellious architect who was kicked out of the college because he refused to learn about the buildings in the past, which were at that time regarded as the most important types of architecture. Howard moved to New York City, a place which had given birth to numerous rising stars in different fields. He went through a lot of setbacks, including an unfair lawsuit and the refusals of most of the building companies in New Yor, and of course, a heart-breaking love affair with a woman who was just as rebellius as he was.

   The story went on, and more characters showed in the picture. Most of them were rich and prominent intellectuals or businessmen, and they had all devoted themselves to the most intelligent man of there time: Ellsworth Toohey. Toohey preached about the selflessness of human being, and the idea of collectivism. He was regarded as the most inspiring mentor by the people who he had helped, or in a more exact way, brain-washed. Toohey's biggest enemy was Gail Wynland, the founder of Wynland Papers. Wynland was born in the gutter, but he strived to become the most powerful man on earth, and he succeeded. He had controlled the press, the media, and thus the minds of general public.

   The story was mainly talking about these three men, all surprisingly resemblent with one another in some ways, but had chosen three entirely different roads which eventually led them to their own distinctive endings.

   By now I have only given you a brief introduction to the general story line of th book, but I haven't quite made myself clear why I like this book. I am going to do that in the next journal, since now I have to pack my things and get ready to go back to my hometown for the Dragon Boat Festival.

   Toodles~