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Dan Brown: The Da Vinci Code
- Thread starter Darren
- Start date
Litany
Active Member
It was on the 3 for 2 table in Waterstones. I wouldn't have considered buying it if it hadn't been for this thread. Have to finish Years of Rice and Salt first, which is going a bit slowly, but I should get round to starting it by the weekend and then I'll find out what all the fuss is about. Who knows, maybe Mile-O-Phile will gain an ally.
Cin
New Member
Alrighty...I thought I'd jump in and start yammering out my 2 cents. Forgive me if I don't use the spoilers correctly. I'll try and be a quick learner... 
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I thought the plot was weak at times, but my enjoyment of the content overrode any disappointment with the rest.
A book like this gives me delight not so much in the plot, but in how it makes me break paradigm thinking and in the knowledge I sponge off of it. I had my art books spread out, a couple of index cards full of "notes" on stuff I wanted to follow up on, and I even got side tracked tracking down a couple items all while reading this book. So, for that kind of mental enticement, I can overlook a plot that was nice, but less than stellar. But what can I say...I am easily amused.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I thought the plot was weak at times, but my enjoyment of the content overrode any disappointment with the rest.
I have to agree with Mile, at least in part, there was something about Langdon dropping to his knees that didn't come across quite right. Despite being overwhelmed at what was before him, it was off the mark. It seemed forced.
A book like this gives me delight not so much in the plot, but in how it makes me break paradigm thinking and in the knowledge I sponge off of it. I had my art books spread out, a couple of index cards full of "notes" on stuff I wanted to follow up on, and I even got side tracked tracking down a couple items all while reading this book. So, for that kind of mental enticement, I can overlook a plot that was nice, but less than stellar. But what can I say...I am easily amused.
Litany
Active Member
Litany takes a deep breath and prepares to be hated.
Dan Brown. Could he be the most pompous and tedious man ever to walk to the face of the Earth? This girl thinks yes. Can he walk past a single monument without noting its exact height in milimeters, the direction the wind was blowing as he passed and the exact knot that the man walking in the opposite direction had used for his tie? I think not.
He comes across as one of those men that has to know absolutely everything about everything, and then make sure that everyone he ever meets damn well knows he knows it. I bet he even works out the exact circumference of the fried eggs he eats for breakfast and expounds upon the significance of the number in great detail over lunch.
Only, he's really not as clever as he'd like to think he is. And if he ever tries to lecture people who are actually experts in the field, they probably want to stab him in the face with their spork.
The story itself is ok, not brilliant, but ok. It's these constant asides Brown uses to wow us with his knowledge that I find grating. The mathematician who explained Fibonacci numbers to him was probably sorely tempted to get the point across by shoving a pineapple up his arse. He's a boring braggart and he smells of elderberries.
Anyhoo, rant over, and you've probably all guessed now how I came by my name. I don't hate the book, it's readable, I just really wish he'd quit with the lectures and get on with the damn story.
Dan Brown. Could he be the most pompous and tedious man ever to walk to the face of the Earth? This girl thinks yes. Can he walk past a single monument without noting its exact height in milimeters, the direction the wind was blowing as he passed and the exact knot that the man walking in the opposite direction had used for his tie? I think not.
He comes across as one of those men that has to know absolutely everything about everything, and then make sure that everyone he ever meets damn well knows he knows it. I bet he even works out the exact circumference of the fried eggs he eats for breakfast and expounds upon the significance of the number in great detail over lunch.
Only, he's really not as clever as he'd like to think he is. And if he ever tries to lecture people who are actually experts in the field, they probably want to stab him in the face with their spork.The story itself is ok, not brilliant, but ok. It's these constant asides Brown uses to wow us with his knowledge that I find grating. The mathematician who explained Fibonacci numbers to him was probably sorely tempted to get the point across by shoving a pineapple up his arse. He's a boring braggart and he smells of elderberries.
Anyhoo, rant over, and you've probably all guessed now how I came by my name.
I don't hate the book, it's readable, I just really wish he'd quit with the lectures and get on with the damn story.
RaVeN
New Member
Dear Litany-O,
I think you're stuck in "smells like elderberries" mode. I liked the book for the same reasons that you disliked it. I found the "lectures" to be part of his style and didn't slow down the telling of the story at all. In fact I found it refreshing to be educated and entertained at the same time. Again, not everything in the story is fact nor does it pretend to be but his writing style is what had me turning the pages at a faster clip and I certainly didn't take any of it as a personal insult upon my intelligence.
All in all I'd say your spork needs a tune-up and you should be checked for a clogged filter(or at least have your plugs and points tweaked a bit)
RaVeN
I think you're stuck in "smells like elderberries" mode. I liked the book for the same reasons that you disliked it. I found the "lectures" to be part of his style and didn't slow down the telling of the story at all. In fact I found it refreshing to be educated and entertained at the same time. Again, not everything in the story is fact nor does it pretend to be but his writing style is what had me turning the pages at a faster clip and I certainly didn't take any of it as a personal insult upon my intelligence.
All in all I'd say your spork needs a tune-up and you should be checked for a clogged filter(or at least have your plugs and points tweaked a bit)
RaVeN
Litany
Active Member
RaVeN said:
I wouldn't be so sure about that, mister. You've yet to meet Old Rusty.
Anyhoo, as I said, I don't hate the book. I just found it distinctly average. I doubt I'll be reading any of Brown's other offerings. And now I'm off to sit in the corner with Mile-O, you can all carry on loving your book, and we'll just sit and eat biscuits. Hope he likes chocolate Hobnobs.
hobitten
New Member
I finished it last night.
I must say, that I was highly entertained - though more so in the beginning, that at the end. The end was rather predictable.
But I do enjoy that kind of mysteries. I do not think, however, that I will read this book again. I might "release" for bookcrossing, one of these days.
If you are into this kind of mysteries, I can recommend Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. That is excellent!!
Hobitten
I must say, that I was highly entertained - though more so in the beginning, that at the end. The end was rather predictable.
But I do enjoy that kind of mysteries. I do not think, however, that I will read this book again. I might "release" for bookcrossing, one of these days.
If you are into this kind of mysteries, I can recommend Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. That is excellent!!
Hobitten
Stewart
Active Member
RaVeN said:
Not meaning anyone in particular but I wonder if it was a
(marketing)
(he has the geography of Paris wrong, though
I won't say there was anything interesting about Rosslyn.
An Englishman referring to 'soccer' ? It's football!
Only in England do cars drive on the left in Europe? Scoland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Wales, Malta, and Cyprus also drive on the left.
The pope in the Vatican ordered the deaths of 5 million woman so that their blood flowed along the Tiber even though the papacy was not called the Vatican, was based in Avignon, France and not Italy, and the aproximation to deaths was 50,000 and was not limited to women.
It's football!Only in England do cars drive on the left in Europe?
Scoland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Wales, Malta, and Cyprus also drive on the left.The pope in the Vatican ordered the deaths of 5 million woman so that their blood flowed along the Tiber even though the papacy was not called the Vatican, was based in Avignon, France and not Italy, and the aproximation to deaths was 50,000 and was not limited to women.
bla bla bla
