This is a great book for long car trips or just to play at home.Some activities include:mini-mysteries, mazes, crossword puzzles, where to find this, coloring pages, car bingo and many, many other fun activities.Rand Mcnally is a great activity book company.I suggest getting this book, and SOON!

I think the Fountainhead is inspiring and capable of actually changing one's entire attitude towards life. However, it can also be a bit damaging in that it makes unrealistic demands of its "converts." One thing that really bothers me: Ayn Rand seems to believe that repressing all emotion, even the deepest pain, is "heroic" while allowing emotion to show is a sign of "weakness." Howard Roark seems to be completely untouched, emotionally, by the setbacks and attacks he suffers. To me, this seems inhuman, but the message in the book is clear: He's superior to those of us who spinelessly exhibit emotion. In fact, in Atlas Shrugged, one of the good guys is actually physically tortured and barely exhibits discomfort! Does this mean that to be a true "hero" of your life you - almost literally - must not feel pain?

I still think this is one of the greatest books ever and it influenced me deeply in a lot of positive ways. However, be alert for the flaws. Ayn Rand and her philosophy were not quite perfect. I spent a few years after the first time I read her works believing that if I got "too emotional" over a situation, or preferred a folk song to a symphony, that I had serious character defects.

Still and all, I'm glad after all these years people are still reading and being inspired by her works.

Its such a positive book I thoroughly recommend it. The characterisations are brilliant, no muddled mixed grey areas, Rand unashamedly creates extremes to illustrate the book. It made me want to go to America in the 1920's and be an architect! The fresh, forward looking joy of life is genuinely uplifting.

The lead character, Howard Roark, with his abrupt, polite conversation with the various people who attempt to sway him provides amusing, cutting but innocent one liners you'll want to use. His independence, demanding nothing from others, was so refreshing. I particularly love the part when Keating rushes up to Roark and demands to know what he really thinks of him. "I never think of you" Replies Roark, with un-contrived honesty. A more enjoyable read, in many ways, than the broader "Atlas Shrugged" which I would recommend as follow on to this book, after a couple of months rest!

And you'll never meet a more vile man than Ellsworth Tooh! ey, nor a more broken man than Gail Wynand. To detract from the book, saying its nazi-ism or social darwinism is ridiculous, I can see no connection! There is scene of the greatest benevolence involving Roark in the book. The infamous 'rape' scene, that many find objectionable, comes over as a private fantasy of Ayn Rand. Its hardly a shocker, it seems nothing like real accounts of rape. Don't let that cloud you.

The story is rather 'black and white', but I feel that's deliberate. It is a fictional story, Rand was a novelist first, then a philosopher. It may be currently a favourite with younger people, but its a book that gets richer as you get wiser. I think suggestions that the book is naive are a non-criticism by people who cannot consider a constructive criticism, its the "I'm, older and wiser therefore you wont understand, but I'm right" argument. Incidentally, I'm not that young!. Rand did not write it with a specific demographic audience in m! ind!

My advice? Go for it, but only if you're going to ! read it closely and thoroughly, you may as well get as much from the novel as possible.

I feel the purpose of reading is to be challenged: ideologically, philosophically, politically, etc. Either those challenges will cause one to rethink one's beliefs or strengthen one's existing convictions. Either of these outcomes will produce, I believe, a better person - a thinker who is willing to encounter more than one argument, one side to any issue, and still retain opinions of one's own.

I would also like to counter some of the comments that the book is simply a thinly veiled treatise on Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. If anyone read the introduction written by Rand she answers a fundamental question:

"Was The Fountainhead written for the purpose of presenting my philosophy? ... This is the motive and purpose of my writing; the projection of the ideal man ... My purpose, first cause and prime motive is the portrayal of Howard Roark as an end in himself."

What I understood from Rand's statement is that her ultimate goal is to present her characters - showing, through their actions and inactions, attitudes and convictions - and the good and bad points of their diverse perspectives on life. In interpreting the book, I feel one should focus on how one perceives the characters, not on what the afterward by Leonard Peikoff or any other outside source espouses.

Form your own opinion of the philosophical ideas expressed in the book - do not rely on Piekoff's interpretation or the interpretation of this review or others. Read the book and analyze the characters on your own - pull from them what grabs at you - what relates to any of your life experiences. To me, that is the most effective way to think and read. Think critically and scrutinize closely and you will not fail to learn from most every part of life.

This is how I approached the novel and I was not disappointed.

I would give Anthem 3 out of 5 stars. It was a very interesting and powerful book. The main character's name is Equality 7-2521. He is a very intelligent street sweeper wanting to be a scholar in an intellectually repressed society. This book most likely takes place in the future after a worldwide disaster. This man enjoys experimenting (illegally) with lightbulbs which haven't been "invented" yet. After showing the "light box" to the council of scholars, he is heavily repremanded. Equality 7-2521 then escapes into the uncharted forest where he discovers many things with his companion Liberty 5-3000. Their most important discovery is the discovery of the forbidden word ego. This book's theme is human individualality. People in this society do not have any individualality. They are assigned strange names, do not have any family, and are not allowed to talk to the opposite sex. Probably the most strange and confusing part of the book Anthem is its use of the word we. For a large portion of the book we is used instead of I becausre of the society's beliefs. 3 out of 5 stars.

I attended a liberal college in the 70's with the usual groups - radical theology students, Marxist economic teachers, philosphy professors praising the power of drugs, marches. I slipped into the bookstore to avoid a demonstration one day and found this book. I thought then it was a gem but have not read it in 27 years. I picked it up the other day and reread it and found it as fresh and exciting as the first time. Both the language and the spirit of the novel were so refreshingly different from the feel good, amoral, smirky tone prevalent in current bestsellers.

Anthem is almost a work of poetry - absolutely amazing considering it is written in a second language. The book's tone is almost religious, a tribute to the human, not the divine spirit. I suspect those writing the most polemical reviews disagree more with the book's philosophy than the literature. It should be offered in junior high and high school as a classic. For today's youth (I have two) it may be too intellectual, expect too much from the reader. It will be difficult for those with a certain philosophical bent to enjoy this book. It is uncompromisingly relentless in its vision of a collectivistic world. But it also unabashedly rejoices in the indominatable strenth of the individual. Very good read.

This book was very short but combined a lot into a mere 12 chapters. By far the most pleasing book I've been forced to read this year in school, "Anthem" is bizarre and futuristic and thought-provoking. The narrator refers to himself as "we" because his society condems individuality. All men must agree with all other men. The only purpose of men is to serve their brothers. Anything not known to all men does not exist. Concern for oneself is evil. No one knows what they look like. And names do not distinguish one person from another. Until Equality discovers long-lost science and is banished to the Uncharted Forest for wondering...and being different...and thinking about the Unspeakable Word. So he and the Golden One (his girlfriend, even though people are not allowed to be attracted to one another; preference is evil and they must love everyone equally)live alone in the woods, discovering old knowledge and forming a new society again in which everyone is I. It's a very, very interesting book and doesn't take a lot of your time. I read it in about an hour and a half. Good stuff.

Although published as three separate books, the Tenth Planet trilogy should really have been released as a single compilation. None of the three books are able to stand on their own. As a set, they are a light but engaging read. These books are pure escapist fun, with stereotypical characters, some plausible pseudo science and a fast paced plot. As long as you are not expecting great literature like Gene Wolfe and are prepared for sci fi that is more in the spirit of Edgar Rice Burroughs, you will enjoy this series.

In the first book, archeologist Leo Cross has discovered evidence of mass destruction through out Earth's history, repeating in precise intervals. Meanwhile, observers at the Hubble III telescope pick up a strange object, six months away on a near collision course with Earth. Earth has six months to guess what is happening and develop a defense.

If you enjoyed this series then you will probably like the Heritage Trilogy by Ian Douglas, which is far better written.

I really do not care if this is only one third of a novel as others claim. O. K., it has an open ending. But we are promised the sequels, and one has already been published. Even in our fast living time we should be able to show some patience. If the two sequels are only half as good as this book, we can expect two very good novels to follow.

This book is really thrilling. I have read it in one go. There have been other sf novels that used the attractive combination of archaeology and science fiction. But this is by far the best! Not only is the story well researched (the authors know about what they write), but the two writers have also an excellent feeling for action, suspense and human character. My copy of "Oblivion" is on its way. I am looking forward to it (and I will patiently wait for "Final Assaut"). The trilogy might get "cult status".

I just finished reading The Tenth Planet and rushed to write this review. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The aliens were truly alien, instead of the usual different-appearance-but-almost-human brand that's so common. They weren't even evil, but clearly they and we cannot coexist. Their depiction was extremely thoughtful and creative. As for the humans, if the plot were not so fantastic and the action so riveting, I might say the characters could have been developed a little better. The lack of depth seems to be par for the course in this type of Sci-Fi thriller, so I'm not so critical as some. Also, it didn't bother me in the least that this book had no conclusion--it's a trilogy! Anyone reading reviews now can buy all 3 books at once, and not lose a precious moment waiting for next release! I have to give this book 5 stars for the sheer entertainment...when I can't wait to get to the next page throughout the entire book, I know I've found a gem! Highly recommended!

This was a stupid book. It's only saving grace was that it was a very easy read. This trilogy started off with a good premise (aliens on a planet with a 2006 year orbit "harvest" large areas of the earth), but just got worse and worse. I don't think the folks hired to write this book (nominally, the "authors") cared about it much either.

Although published as three separate books, the Tenth Planet trilogy should really have been released as a single compilation. None of the three books are able to stand on their own. As a set, they are a light but engaging read. These books are pure escapist fun, with stereotypical characters, some plausible pseudo science and a fast paced plot. As long as you are not expecting great literature like Gene Wolfe and are prepared for sci fi that is more in the spirit of Edgar Rice Burroughs, you will enjoy this series.

In the second book, Earth has learned the terrible secret of the tenth planet. Not content merely to defend themselves against the rapacious Malmuria, Earth breaks out it's stock of antiquated nuclear weapons and prepares to take the battle to the Malmurians on their home turf.

If you enjoyed this series then you will probably like the Heritage Trilogy by Ian Douglas, which is far better written.

The Tenth Planet: Oblivion is not as riveting as the first book in the trilogy, but the action does pick up in the second half of the book. In this middle book, we see much more about the aliens. The authors show a great deal of imagination in presenting beings so foreign to us, and yet with a sense of ethics and emotions that are close to human. It's an interesting twist that these aliens are not evil, but it comes down to their survival or ours. The characterization of the humans is fair but not great. This is definitely a story of plot, not characterization. There is no great moral message that I've seen so far. I give the book 4 stars for two reasons. First, the creativity and great plot line begun in the first book of the trilogy keeps the reader eagerly pursuing the outcome. Secondly, reviews indicate that the third book, which I'm about to begin, is satisfying and better than this second book. All in all, I think any science fiction fan will like this series. It is set in the near future, making it more "real" than the far-out stuff you can try to wade through. It seems plausible that these things could happen. Enough writing--I'm headed for the couch to begin the next iteration!

I have a passion for Niagara Falls; this passion took me to purchasing this book....it captures probably all the fine art imaginable about Niagara. The problem is one of volume. To print the art with a decent size, it would have been too large of a book and too expensive. Hence, they have taken to shrinking a lot of it. Alas, you have the art, but a lot of it is hard to see. Still, a worthwhile purchase for SERIOUS NFalls fans; if you prefer photos SKIP this book!