"The Da Vinci Code". Anyone read the book?

[russkayatatu]

Sorry to be the one party pooper, but I didn't like it at all; I thought it was highly mediocre

I thought the characters were weak, the plot was improbable and I was sick to death when I finished it that it was so long and so poorly written - overall it reminded me of the sort of books I used to read when I was little, Young Indiana Jones and stuff like that Which is not bad, but let's not confuse it with real writing.

I suppose that if it makes people want to delve more deeply into Church history that's good. In general, if you want to read something relatively simple and frivolous but still sorta kinda pretend you're thinking, it's a great choice (sorry if that sounds harsh ... )

In other words, this isn't literature, it's a translation of visual media into book form.

I'm not surprised they're making a movie of it, Kate, thanks for the info. The book also has a lot in common with the computer games I used to play when I was younger too. It has the same, drawn-in-one-stroke characters, lots of plot, lots of different places to go to (and they're linked, one leads to the other: Langdon can't leave the Louvre until he finds everything he's supposed to, for example), lots of colorful minor characters, and puzzles everywhere. There are major goals and minor ones: evading the police, solving the mystery. Getting out of the Louvre. Deciphering what her uncle left behind. And there's nothing much to the story except the adventure, after all; overall I think it would make a brilliant computer game

Plus then we would've had the opportunity to actually solve those puzzles rather than reading how they solve them None of it was very difficult. I didn't think too much of all the research and theories he mentioned, either ... most of it I had heard before; I kept waiting for the really good stuff, really interesting evidence I didn't know about; I was still waiting when I got to the end ...

I have another question: if his book was so exhaustively researched, why didn't Dan Brown give a bibliography? I was looking for one: Gore Vidal had one for his novel JULIAN, and Graves for I, CLAUDIUS and his other books. Can't he decide whether it's a novel loosely based on historical ideas that takes a lot of fictional license - like those Indiana Jones books - (I think there is nothing wrong with that, by the way) - or whether it should be taken seriously as presenting valid history inside an adventure well within the realm of possibility? He seems to want to have it both ways.

the crappy reviews are because people are biased because of religion as sci fi

I think this is simply not true, because ... I didn't like it, and I have no problem with "religion as sci fi" - I haven't read much that I think could be classified that way, but I liked James Blish's A CASE OF CONSCIENCE a lot I don't mind his choice of subject, what I don't like is the way he treated it. As an adventure it's OK. For people who want something simple it is fantastic. But in general I like books with a little more substance; nothing in this book surprised me or thrilled me or made me glad I was reading it ... it was OK, but I was glad when it was done, so I could get back to something more worth the time.

"Truly mind-blowing" is something like Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD - not this. Really I think it's fluff.

On the other hand, for fluff, it is top of the line

[Ningyo]

Read it and found it entertaining, just that. What really kept me hooked were the descriptions the author made of the locations, not the plot per se. It wasn't particularly enthralling. Let's say I just finished reading it because my mother had suggested it for me.

Probably the major downside for me was that I solved some of the 'mysteries' before the characters. I found the ending far from pleasing. I was kinda disappointed of reading about all the adventures for that.

As many people I'm interested in religious history, but this was a rehash of several theories I've seen before. As russkayatatu said, this is "a translation of visual media into book form."

I know it's a bestseller, and I can see why; I just don't think it's that brilliant.

[TaTu^HeRo]

:: Hero still trying to find time to read it :: my opinion is useless since i didn't read it

[Kate]

Well, I found that the book had action, thrill, romance, mystery, suspense and even humor... what more do you need a book to be? Dan Brown does enormous amounts of research for his books, I'm suprised that russkayatatu and Sullen.Kloun didn't see that. "Tha Da Vinci Code" is packed with information about the Holy Grial, Priory of Sion, Opus Dei, Luvre, Paris, old Churches etc. And all this information is true, and Dan Brown found a way to stick this information in the context of a smooth, thrilling adventure. Of course, everyone doesn't have to completely agree with Brown's conclusions; even I found some parts of the novel a bit far-fetched... but it is an overally great book, and I think the ratings speak for themselves.

Personally, I would recommend Dan Brown's other novels: "Angels and Demons", "Deception point" and "Digital Fortress" to anyone as an entertaining and informative read!! It's like a movie on paper.

I haven't read "Digital Fortress" yet, but "Angels and Demons" and "Deception Point" are great!!

Angels and Demons:
When world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol -- seared into the chest of a murdered physicist -- he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati... the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth.

The Illuminati has surfaced from the shadows to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy... the Catholic Church.

Langdon's worst fears are confirmed on the eve of the Vatican's holy conclave, when a messenger of the Illuminati announces he has hidden an unstoppable time bomb at the very heart of Vatican City. With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.

Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra follow a 400-year old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati lair... a secret location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.

An explosive international thriller, ANGELS & DEMONS careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war...

Deception Point:
When a new NASA satellite spots evidence of an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory… a victory that has profound implications for U.S. space policy and the impending presidential election.

With the Oval Office in the balance, the President dispatches White House Intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton to the Milne Ice Shelf to verify the authenticity of the find. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic academic Michael Tolland, Rachel uncovers the unthinkable—evidence of scientific trickery—a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy.

But before Rachel can contact the President, she and Michael are attacked by a deadly task force…a private team of assassins controlled by a mysterious powerbroker who will stop at nothing to hide the truth. Fleeing for their lives in an environment as desolate as it is lethal, they possess only one hope for survival: to find out who is behind this masterful ploy. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all…

In his most thrilling novel to date, bestselling author Dan Brown transports readers from the ultra-secret National Reconnaissance Office to the towering ice shelves of the Arctic Circle, and back again to the hallways of power inside the West Wing. Heralded for masterfully intermingling science, history, and politics in his critically acclaimed thriller Angels & Demons, Brown has crafted another novel in which nothing is as it seems—and behind every corner is a stunning surprise. DECEPTION POINT is pulse-pounding fiction at its best.

Digital Fortress:
Chillingly current and filled with more intelligence secrets than Tom Clancy, Digital Fortress transports the reader deep within the most powerful intelligence organization on earth--the National Security Agency (NSA)--an ultra-secret, multi-billion dollar agency which (until now) less than three percent of Americans knew existed.

When the NSA's most classified technological wonder--an invincible code-breaking machine--encounters a mysterious code it cannot break, the agency calls in its head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher, a brilliant and beautiful mathematician. What she uncovers sends shock waves through the corridors of power.

The NSA is being held hostage... not by guns or bombs, but by a code so ingeniously complex that if released it will cripple U.S. intelligence.

Caught in an accelerating tempest of secrecy and lies, Susan Fletcher battles to save the agency she believes in. Betrayed on all sides she finds herself fighting not only for her country, but for her life, and in the end, for the life of the man she loves.

With a startling twist that leaves the agency scrambling to avert the biggest intelligence disaster in U.S. history, Digital Fortress never lets up.

From the underground hallways of power, to the skyscrapers of Tokyo, to the towering cathedrals of Spain, a desperate race unfolds. It is a battle for survival -- a crucial bid to destroy a creation of inconceivable genius... an impregnable code-writing formula that threatens to obliterate the balance of power. Forever.

[russkayatatu]

Well, I found that the book had action, thrill, romance, mystery, suspense, and even humor... what more do you need a book to be?

Everything! Everything, everything ... I wish I knew how to describe ... books should be challenging, an axe to shatter our notions, our way of looking at the world. Books should be dynamite! Dan Brown is a storyteller, not a writer. When I read THE DA VINCI CODE, I felt my world shrinking. It's entertainment only: there's no substance; it might show the door to something deeper, but there's nothing nourishing; it has no heft, it has no weight, it leaves a pleasant impression, a sand castle that the waves consume before the kids have been gone even a half-hour.

It reminds me of a passage from Kerouac's ON THE ROAD: "Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk - real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious."

There are some books, for me, that know that life is holy; in which no time is wasted, every sentence is precious and talks about souls, my soul, the author's soul, souls of people I don't know, souls that exist only in the between-life-and-death state of Schroedinger's poor cat ... and then there are those that are ephemera, gone in an instant, to be forgotten.

If you cannot tell the difference between these two kinds of books, I don't know how to explain it to you ... but it is THERE, believe me, try to see it; it is magical when you see something that affects you like those books. When I used to go to the theatre, if it was a good performance I would walk the streets for miles, by myself, when it ended - and it would give way to half-formed dreams and transcendent observations and all of it, all of it filled with awe, and gratitude that I'd seen it, and the desire to transmit it to somebody else somehow, let them feel what I'd felt.

I am a rotten writer and I don't know how to explain. But there is nothing like that in Dan Brown's book ... It reminds me of something I read that Kafka said about Chaplin: "Chaplin is a technician. He's the man of a machine world, in which most of his fellow men no longer command the requisite emotional and mental equipment to make the life allotted to them really their own. They do not have the imagination. As a dental technician makes false teeth, so he manufactures aids to the imagination. That's what his films are. That's what films in general are."

That's what I find Dan Brown's book is, an aid to the imagination - nothing more. Like "Star Wars," maybe, like Spielberg's Indiana Jones movies. Like screenwriter, TV-writer, short-story-writer Harlan Ellison said, "We suffer, these days, in Hollywood, from a great many writers whose background is not in literature, but in television upbringing. They were raised on I Love Lucy. When some of these people go into theatrical features, they use as templates the shallow devices of the sitcom. Spielberg and Lucas make films that are hommage to Saturday morning serials, pop goods that are amusing for children but certainly cannot be considered great art."

This is exactly what THE DA VINCI CODE is, in my opinion. There is a direct line, from Saturday morning serials to Spielberg and Lucas to THE DA VINCI CODE. "Action, thrill, romance, mystery, suspense, and even humor" ... It's shallow, deadening reading - for me deadening.

I am tremendously depressed today because in the paper there was an article about a man who read 101 books last year and concluded "you can never read too many books." The problem is that what he read is mostly crap ... And he did not say anything about what he gained, how his horizons were stretched by reading - he read a lot of nonfiction, facts on human cadavers, a lot of memoirs about activities like fishing, one book on the sort of guns to hunt big game in Africa, and a lot of lightweight novels, the kind that belong in the same category as pallid imitations of BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY (yeah, I read that too) - only that he really enjoyed the year. Bloody hell! The number of books you read isn't important; who cares about this guy who read 101 and has practically nothing, judging by his article, to say about it? It reminds me of something that Arthur Koestler wrote and I've thought about a lot in the past 2 months:

"If you were to ask me what a writer's ambition in life should be, I would answer with a formula. A writer's ambition should be to trade a hundred contemporary readers for ten readers in ten years and for one reader in a hundred years [...] Religion and art are the two completely non-competitive spheres of human striving and they both derive from the same source. But the social climate in this country [USA] has made the creation of art into an essentially competitive business [...] I am convinced that a century from now the historian will regard the degredation of art to the competitive level as one of the main aberrations of contemporary American culture and the bestselling chart as its grotesque symbol."

What you gain, how a book made you think, how you would have been different if you hadn't read it, that's what matters to me when I think about reading in general and anything that I read. I'm sure that THE DA VINCI CODE will have a great effect on some people. I do not mean to lessen this at all; in fact one of the books I remember most from those I read before college is FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, by Ian Fleming - and whenever I read a book that I think is junk, I stop and wonder if for someone it's not as influential and as enjoyable as the James Bond books were for me.

For myself I agree with Sullen.Kloun, I had heard of almost everything in the book before - a rehash of religious theories - I am not so impressed by all the research he did - now that I think of it, even the Indiana Jones books that I read as a kid had a section at the back for "further reading on this topic"; why not Dan Brown?

I wish I could tell you what books mean to me, Kate, how much they CAN mean ... because there is so much more that is possible than what Dan Brown reaches ... you know, when I heard of the man who read 101 books in a year, I started to wonder how much, exactly, I read, and counted (by the way, everything by the numbers again, just as Koestler said). From the beginning of May I've read around 20 books and have watched somewhere around 30 movies. I've been on vacation so I've been reading a lot - I am trying to understand very many things. It seems like I never started to understand before; not in class and not out of class. About America, mostly. I've read:

A BOY'S OWN STORY by Edmund White
THE BEAUTIFUL ROOM IS EMPTY by Edmund White
THE FAREWELL SYMPHONY by Edmund White
MYRA BRECKINRIDGE & MYRON by Gore Vidal
STRANGER ON THE SQUARE by Arthur Koestler and Cynthia Koestler
THE VOICE OF THE MARTIANS by George Marx
MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Euginides
AND THE BAND PLAYED ON by Randy Shilts
JOE COLLEGE by Tom Perrotta
MISS LONELYHEARTS & THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
"THE NORMAL HEART" by Larry Kramer
DULUTH by Gore Vidal
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
COUNT DOWN by Steve Olson
THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown
JULIAN by Gore Vidal
I, ROBOT by Harlan Ellison (screenplay)
THE ARMIES OF THE NIGHT by Norman Mailer
MARRIAGE UNDER FIRE by James Dobson
THE CITY AND THE PILLAR by Gore Vidal

This list does not include a number of books which I read deeply but only parts of, like Sylvia Plath's CROSSING THE WATER, Allen Ginsberg's SPONTANEOUS MIND, a collection of Anais Nin's essays, interviews with V.S. Naipual, a Noam Chomsky reader, a memoir by Gore Vidal. It also doesn't include books that I'd already read and that I returned to, like Andrew Hodges's ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA, James Watson's DOUBLE HELIX, James Gleick's GENIUS.

Now I'm reading Philip Roth's THE PROFESSOR OF DESIRE. At first I didn't like his hero at all - he's too literary, too conventional in his approach to culture & mental life, like most professors of literature I know That's not what I want to advocate, necessarily ... (not snobbishness) ...

But I read MIDDLESEX, THE DA VINCI CODE, and JOE COLLEGE mostly because some people I knew recommended them and I wanted to see what they were about, and these are the only three books that I despised while I was reading them: I wanted them to END, I didn't want my thinking to be colored by their simplistic rendering of the world. Maybe I can't say anything about their artistic worth, but I know that I felt the world shrinking when I read them and relief when I put them down ... The world is a subjective creation, as Anais Nin wrote, and there is a choice to be made, a selection of elements ... I would rather limit the selection of these sorts of elements. MYRA BRECKINRIDGE is a nearly flawless book; that and MYRON are two of the funniest and most brilliant satires I've ever read. THE ARMIES OF THE NIGHT tears me apart; Jack Kerouac is incredible for what he was attempting; a NEW KIND of writing, Allen Ginsberg too, and all of them - Vidal, Mailer, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Chomsky, Ellison - at the same time, and amidst chaos in the country! Thinking about sex and writing and life and America and history and gods and women and men - and their writing that's their testament; that I find, that I read, that I can feel through their words the tenor and the quality of what they think and experience. It is crazy, crazy, I would like to share it with somebody, and the only person here, my dad, who thinks THE DA VINCI CODE is fabulous and has all of Dan Brown's books, too, announces what he learned about tigers in reading THE LIFE OF PI and how Kerouac is great, of course, but after a while he himself got bored reading about a bunch of guys in a car. This is not what reading means to me! It's that when I look at the list of all the books I've read I realize that this, together with the one of the movies I've seen, is a snapshot, nearly, of my mental life over the last few 2 months. There is a life outside, of course, incidents, people, memories and new happenings, which is not at all insignificant and swarms together with the "lists," but it shows most of what matters to me, what I have been thinking of, what I am looking for.

"Draft cards continued to be burned - each one a flutter of anxiety in everyone's heart, a release of fire on wings. Contemplate the humiliation to a college student if he hates the war and keeps the card in his wallet - how it says to him each time he looks for an address: you are yellow, buddy, for you keep me. So the cards burned one by one through the night, each man sitting in his position on the steps, the plaza, or the Mall, with his own card burning inside him, his stomach a glut of elation and woe as each new card went up from the dark in flame, suddenly it is his own, he - wild revolutionary youth, conservative middle-class boy, keeper of draft cards - his schizophrenia is burning and the security of the future with it. He looks for a girl to kiss in reward." - from THE ARMIES OF THE NIGHT

That is what more I need a book to be

[Kate]

russkayatatu, every book doesn't need to be mind blowing, otherwise people will go mad. Personally, I can't read books that go on and on and on and on... I like books that get to the points.

Earlier, you mentioned that you solved some of the puzzles in "The Da Vicni Code" yourself; well, so did I. The one with Isaac Newton and the apple was easy. But what do you expect from a mainstream novel? A rocket science mystery? Something that'll bore the socks off of your feet by the time you finally get to the bottom of the explanation? I doubt it, unless you have lots of free time.

I wish I could tell you what books mean to me, Kate, how much they CAN mean ... because there is so much more that is possible than what Dan Brown reaches ...

What's that supposed to mean? I probably read more books then you. I come from a very well read family, my dad practically finished reading the whole Library of the Moscow State University. Of course I read books that were deeper then "The Da Vinci Code", such as "War and Peace" by Tolstoi and other books by Russian authors you won't recognise... But is it so wrong to find a mainstream book by Dan Brown interesting? Does it make me stupid? You sound like you are proud that you didn't enjoy it.

I guess it all depends on your taste in books. I, for example, can't stand Harry Potter books. But a lot of my friends enjoy reading them, and I don't go around ruining it for them by explaining why I dislike them so much. In fact I respect J.K.Rowling, she is a very creative woman, and it's good that so many people like her books.

It's a writer's job to make people enjoy and think. Dan Brown did it, whether you like it or not. And I wish you would be a bit more respectful to Dan Brown. We'll continue this conversation after I see you write a book like "The Da Vinci Code".

[russkayatatu]

katbeidar, I apologize, I didn't mean to sound proud.

I don't think it's wrong to enjoy a "mainstream book," as you say, and I don't deny that Dan Brown wrote something that many people do enjoy, but I personally would not have said it was "fantastic" and "truelly mind-blowing" and say "you owe it to yourself to read it," and, later, that it has everything one could need in a book. I find it impossible to get that worked up about it even when I look at it as generously as I can (I still think it would make a great computer game ). You asked, "What do you think?" Well, and I answered; I wasn't intending to "go around ruining it" for people the way you did not do for your friends and Harry Potter, but I guess I've said enough

I doubt you have read books by Russian authors I wouldn't recognize, and it's not very kind to assume I wouldn't But now we are getting into personal territory, so I back out

I still think The Da Vinci Code is badly written, and it reads like a novelization to me. But that's just my perspective, and as you said our tastes differ

[Kate]

russkayatatu, it's all good. I'm cool with the fact that you didn't enjoy Dan Brown's book.

[nath]

On the french TV , they said that the gardians of the Louvre are tired 'cause now a lot of people, tourists just come to see the places that the book describes and ask to them always for the same questions......so they have to put signs, notices everywhere to explain to the visitors that the book is a pure fiction....
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/eu...ode/index.html

[coolasfcuk]

Originally Posted by katbeidar

I probably read more books then you. I come from a very well read family, my dad practically finished reading the whole Library of the Moscow State University. Of course I read books that were deeper then "The Da Vinci Code", such as "War and Peace" by Tolstoi and other books by Russian authors you won't recognise...

sorry to bring this old discussion, but it was very interesting to read that lil 'talk' between russkaya and kate .... wish it had continued ....

Kate, you were playing with fire - I dont think I personally know anyone that has read as much as russkayatatu has read .. not even my cousin, who is a crazy reader. And dont assume she hasnt read or hasnt heard of russian authors that you know, because I put ALL my money down she knows MORE about Russian literature than you .. psssss, to give out the secret: Rachel graduated from Yale with distinction (or something like that) and was the ONLY Slavic Languages and Literatures major ... and the girl speaks BETTER Russian than Russians themselves, with absolutelly NO accent! (If you wanna see an article about her from Yale, PM me, Im sure she wouldnt mind)

excuse my personal message ...but had to say it....

oh, i havent even read the book, .. i prefer to read kids book .. by say Selma Lagerlof to get the same entertainment as I would from The Da Vinci Code. At least Selma has a Nobel Prize in Literature

[nath]

Originally Posted by coolasfcuk

At least Selma has a Nobel Prize in Literature

..and I think she was gay....but it isn't a reference of course , just for the anecdoct.....

[coolasfcuk]

Originally Posted by sunwalk

..and I think she was gay....but it isn't a reference of course , just for the anecdoct.....

he, funny... that might explain why for the longest time I thought she looks like A MAN on the swedish 20 kronor ... and of course there is lil Nils flying over Sverige ... I really have a thing for kids books ... hmmm, i must be a shallow person

[Kate]

Originally Posted by coolasfcuk

Kate, you were playing with fire - I dont think I personally know anyone that has read as much as russkayatatu has read

Well, then again - you don't know me.

[Ningyo]

Originally Posted by katbeidar

Dan Brown does enormous amounts of research for his books, I'm suprised that russkayatatu and Sullen.Kloun didn't see that. "Tha Da Vinci Code" is packed with information about the Holy Grial, Priory of Sion, Opus Dei, Luvre, Paris, old Churches etc. And all this information is true, and Dan Brown found a way to stick this information in the context of a smooth, thrilling adventure.

Whoa, excuse if I'm wrong, but researching is something that I (as a reader) expect every writer to have done. Because, even when I might not know anything about it, it's noticeable when a writer hasn't researched. And in Dan Brown's case, I think his book is a bestseller because he made unpopular information accessible to the average population. In my opinion, his skill is more about teaching than storytelling.

Originally Posted by coolasfcuk

sorry to bring this old discussion, but it was very interesting to read that lil 'talk' between russkaya and kate .... wish it had continued ....

No prob with me, at least I got to know that I was mentioned twice in this thread. [Such an accomplishment for someone like me, hehe]. And I agree with you coolasfcuk, this old discussion was very interesting.

[Kate]

Sullen.Kloun, let's agree to disagree. You don't like Dan brown, I do. Your opinion does not effect me, just like mine doesn't effect you. Let's stay true to what we like and leave this discussion.

[spyretto]

Was going to buy it online with other things but they didn't offer free delivery for books while they did for the other stuff, so I decided to take it off the list.

So now I only have the e-book version and I'm reading it slowly..need to get the normal book soon though. I think it's a very entertaining read, quite like an Umberto Eco novel but "lighter", more commercialised - but good nonetheless... spooky as well

Having said that, it's not a "classic" by any means of the word. I've read much better books than this one ( and much worse of course )

I could name you 3 dozen books that are better than this but most of them all classics. There're lots of great books out there. So I won't dismiss it as ruskkaya did though I see her point...it's still good for what it is ...

[Ann t..A.T.u.]

man that book totally rocked i saw my bro readin it then i read it best 4 days ever. definate non stop page turner absolutly amazing

[Kate]

Tom Hanks has singned on to play the role of Robert Langdon in the movie adaption of "The Da Vinci Code"!! I think it's great. As long as it's not Russel Crow.