The Da Vinci Code

by Dan Brown | Mystery & Thrillers |
ISBN: 0385504209 Global Overview for this book
Registered by zugenia of Hamilton, Ontario Canada on 3/3/2006
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by zugenia from Hamilton, Ontario Canada on Friday, March 3, 2006
Despite the multiple warnings away from this book I've received from people whose opinions are to be trusted, at my dad's insistence I have decided to participate in this particular cultural phenomenon and read the book before seeing the movie. Let me state for the record: It is not well-written. Brown crafts his sentences using strings of cliches, then spells out the innuendo of the cliches, as if not trusting his reader to be smart enough to decode the simplest of literary languages without assistance. For example:

"'I am Bezu Fache [...] Captain of the Central Directoriate Judicial Police.' His tone was fitting -- a gutteral rumble ... like a gathering storm."

That second ellipsis is actually in the text, as if Brown anticipated the reader's brain itching at the introduction of a menacingly masculine chief of police who speaks in a "gutteral rumble" [...it reminds me of something, a mood or something, you know, not good but, like, bad -- bad like something bad about to happen -- what could it be...??] until our narrative guide arrives to help us out of this terribly difficult allusive connundrum [yes, of course, that's what it sounds like: "a gathering storm." How clever.]

So, yes, at moments like this (and there are many), I feel like I'm reading Remedial Thriller Fiction. But I didn't pick this book up expecting to be bowled over by the prose; I picked it up because, thanks to Alias, I'm a sucker for these secret-society-with-secret-codes-and-other-secrets-pertaining-to-the-secret-lives-of-Renaissance-artistic-and-scientific-geniuses narratives. So much so that I actually watched National Treasure a few weeks ago (you know, that movie starring Nicholas Cage and Some Blonde European Chick No One Has Ever Heard Of in which the Masons have hidden a treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence -- yeah, that one) and let me tell you, once you've done that, you have concede all rights to shame. Also, I cannot stand not being in on the secret, especially such a secret secret secret as this kind of narrative promises, especially when every other person in America knows it. I know, it's the kind of curiosity that's going to get this cat killed one day, or at least really bored and disappointed (see above re: National Treasure). But in the case of The Da Vinci Code, what my dad promised is true: I'm reading it quickly, and I keep turning the pages, and even with all my cynicism and better judgment intact, I haven't gotten bored yet. So that's something, right?

Also, I believe this is going to make a fantastic movie.

Journal Entry 2 by zugenia from Hamilton, Ontario Canada on Sunday, March 5, 2006
I finished this last night, and, despite the fact that it took the characters (a British Royal Historian, a world-renowned Harvard symbologist, and a Parisian police cryptologist) hundreds of pages to decode riddles that this humble reader had solved before finishing the last line, I did keep reading right until the very end, not even getting up to refill my wine glass -- which, on my scale, is akin to some kind of thumbs up.

I'm going to offer this one to loneflower in a Reverse Wishlist Relay.

Journal Entry 3 by loneflower from Buhl, Idaho USA on Monday, April 17, 2006
Thanks for sending this, no worries about the delay, I have so much to read anyways. I will journal again when I read time to read it, probably in the next month.

I love a good religious conspiracy, so I've wanted to read this book for some time. (Probably because I've heard so much buzz the last couple of years about it.)

At first, I couldn't really get into it and I had to struggle through the first three chapters or so, mostly because I felt like I was reading a bad report about Opus Dei. Sometimes, I think there is a fine line between giving the reader enough information to understand the backstory and telling them so much they feel like they are reading a report. This book read like a report, especially with the author's tendancy to italicize words, he felt were important like cilice. It was like he kept saying, oh I learned a new word, so I'm going to use it as many times as possible, so you learn it, too.

The book got better though, the mystery was kind of interesting. I can't say I thought the codes were that difficult and I had figured out Sophia's connection to the grail well before she thought of it, but the pacing was good, so I kept reading. I have never read anything by Dan Brown before, so I was surprised that the novel read more like a screen play than a book. I guess it will adapt to the big screen well, but I thought he might have been dumbing the idea down so it would play to a bigger audience. I'm not sure I would read another book by him.

I'm loaning this one to my brother and then to my mother. I doubt either one of them will journal it, they are so lazy, but when I get it back, I will be sure to post where it is going next. Thanks again!

Just got this book back for loan, my brother decided not to read it, because he didn't want the movie to be ruined and my mother read it in one day. She liked it a lot more than I did, which kind of surprised me, because I thought it was a bit cheesy.

Offered as a RABCK in the Book Wish List forum and am sending it to the_littleminx.

Journal Entry 4 by littleminx from Tulsa, Oklahoma USA on Saturday, May 20, 2006
Rcvd in today's mail. Thanks for this rabck. I'm eager to see what all the hype is about.

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