<p>oh god.. i read the fountainhead, which is a lil shorter than atlas shrugged, and it was painful..</p>
<p>touch</p>
<p>"But you are missing out on a fantastic read"</p>
<p>Well, no, you're not. The prose styling is poor, and the characters are completely unbelievable. The plot is ridiculous. Only someone convinced by the philosophy could find this to be a good book. Please, don't waste a month on this drivel--read Charles Dickens, or "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell," or "Snow Crash," or "The Lord of the Rings," or "A Sand County Almanac," or Hemingway or...just about anything.</p>
<p>How much is the scholarship from the Objectivists? If it's not a lot, it's still not worth having to read the book.</p>
<p>Pfft. Reading Rand for the narrative is like reading Scripture for humor.</p>
<p>Oops, sorry. I meant to say it has to be fiction or a biography.</p>
<p>If you don't like it, don't read it! It's clear that you don't read many books, and my feeling is that it's just because you haven't found ones you like (you seem like a very intelligent person). Why not try to find a style of book you enjoy--science fiction, fantasy, mystery? Not only will you gain just as much (probably more) from reading that book than the objectivist drivel that is Atlas Shrugged, it might open the doors to reading more books that you will actually enjoy and read for fun. Reading for fun, not for a class assignment, is the best way to learn SAT vocab words. </p>
<p>So don't force yourself. Lay down Ayn Rand and find something you'll really enjoy. I guarantee you among the bajillion books out there there's one that will blow you away, probably more than that.</p>
<p>PS My parents are both Princeton English majors and I still think that over half of the SAT vocab words are useless and hardly ever used in real life.</p>