The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

read it, stupid but well written.

Have you read "Cracking the Da Vinci Code"? It's supposed to reveal what elements of the original book are true, and what are hokum.

hmm sorry from another thread... in my humble opinion a fully crap book (to quote our German exchange student) plenty of well written and researched stuff around about Mary Magdalene, Templars et al and non-sectarian academic gumph about the feminine role (one could start with The Alphabet & The Goddess). I guess Dan deserverves credit for popularising it - if there are any other surfers out there, it's all about being in the power spot of the wave...

Mass hysteria. It reached critical mass and exploded. I picked it up, read about 2 chapters and stuck it back on the shelf. Women like it, I've noticed. I wouldn't mind something I wrote being that popular though heheheh...

i just started this last night.. i havent gotten too far into the book but the way i see it.. he has an interesting story but the writing is mediocre... i've seen writing here on abctales that would make dan brown's writing look like nothing more than drivel. radiodenver.. "women like it"... shame on you.. =oP

nancy, There's no shame in what I said. Amongst the people I know, mostly the women are going on about the book. I pointed this out. That's all. I don't hear any guys talking about it. I agree with the writing quality. It's average for a book of this magnitude.

it was just a joke...cause what you said could have been interpreted in a different way.. if i had been serious i wouldnt have stuck my cybertongue out at you... now would i?

Just got his for £3.73 in Tesco. The writing is annoying me at the moment but hope for some fascinating facts to hook me soon. Being all woman an' all...

To all those who think that, regardless the utter worthlessness of the book as a piece of lit(t)erature, they have "learned" a few facts about history and/or art, I must say: you haven't. As a historian AND an art historian I can assure you that the author of this nebulose... thing has succeeded in misunderstanding - or misrepresenting (on purpose?) - even some of the basic facts regarding Leonardo's work and art history in general (not to mention history in general). Don't take my word for it. Just take courage and go research every one of his "facts" for yourself. I say "take courage" because research means reading a lot of material - well researched, well proven - that one infatuated with "the Code" might not like to read or acknowledge. Oh, and BTW: the name is LEONARDO. Leonardo FROM Vinci.

i think it's a desperate bid to portray christianity in a better light that's at the bottom of the book -- as it stands Christianity has no place for women -- a woman is only glorified if she's a virgin -- women's sexuality is taboo -- and is a mother. Plus, Christianity is absolutely intolerant towards peoples of other cultures and faiths -- which the Da Vinci Code has not bothered to touch upon -- which is of equal importance IMO --

My brother got this for Christmas and has read it already. I don't think it's my kind of thing but the bloke's obviously done a pretty good job of putting together a book that loads of people want to read. In my experience all cultures and faiths are intolerant of all other cultures and faiths to some extent.

Great. Just Great. I've ordered the book. It is sitting right in front of me, next to my computer monitor. I suppose it has very little chance of getting cracked opened now. Any suggestions on some good reads? Dev

what a facetious thread!! true, the da vinci code has no literary value and the ending is damp, but the book as a whole is very very good. just because it does not overflow with allegories and metaphors and 3-page descriptions of a flower petal does not mean you have to crinkle your nose at it. the ending seems damp only because the rest of the book is very interesting and those who say they lost interest after the 2nd chapter are the biggest liars or simply dumb. i don't know how true the facts are but as far as the paintings go, the accounts given in the book are very very correct. i mean, ask yourselves, after a tiring day would you rather snuggle into bed with a shakespeare or the da vinci code??? seriously people, get your noses back to earth!! [%sig%]

Garbage.

I did read ten pages of this the other day, as it was lying on a friend's table. It was, I'm afraid, utterly ghastly. Now, I love thrillers - I read everything Alastair McLean and Ludlum had written - I know they're dumb, but as long as they are fun, thrillers deserve to be judged on their own merit. But I swear, I read sentences like this, often five or six on the same page "The Citreon darted past the Louvre, which was constructed out of sixty thousand bricks of granite, quarried from the nearby town of Aux-Le Chapelle, where Monet had first learned to sketch; the glass pyramid installed in 1990 had been made from three sheets of glass each weighing four hundred pounds." Oh, and this belter "We call our boss Le Taureau" said X. "You call your boss, the bull?" said Y. "Your French is better than you had told us," said X (No, he's just one of the many millions of people who know that Taurus is a bull) It was just apallingly bad. It was in fact, so bad, that I had to read some of these chunks of clunky, guide-book research shoehorned into a sentence in place of atmosphere to my friend, who blushed heartily.

Oh, and this belter "We call our boss Le Taureau" said X. "You call your boss, the bull?" said Y. "Your French is better than you had told us," said X - that cracked me up that did when I was reading it. I did actually read the whole thing in one afternoon. It was a page turner I'll give it that. I think people liked reading it because - for once - they felt a little bit clever reading it, and that's no bad thing. His main character is a bloody disgrace. The scenes where his female students are looking at him knowingly and sexily made me want to track down Dan Brown and pluck out his chest hairs with blunt tweezers. I hated the end. Really hated it. But if peopled liked it it did its job. For me it was a bit like having a toss in the living room on a wet afternoon when there's a hot date waiting for you in your favourite winebar.

I've no interest in reading it, because I've become aware of several of the 'Googled' place descriptions and descriptions of objects, which I think is lazy - I'm also aware that the skeleton of the plot is stolen from two existing and fairly well known novels. But it's an airport read and he's sold a lot of copies and made a lot of the readers happy, which is all he set out to achieve. To judge it as a piece of writing rather misses the point - it's like criticising a firework for not tasting of strawberries. But personally I would rather stick forks in my eyes than read it - Eco's version twenty years ago was hard graft, and Eco is a skilful writer.

How you jabber, sir.

Come on guys, it's not so bad. You could have been reading the Lemony Cliterish book! The level of research I have noted in 'the Code' about some of the arcane institutions may well have been googled, yet today this is not such a bad thing: on some subjects there aren't really all that many sources of information that haven't been made up by 'scholars'. Dan Brown has done a better job of it than Michael Crighton. I've still to meet anyone who has blatantly 'learned' something from the Code in the same way as Crighton-ites. I would slap them like Americans who think Objectivism was invented by Rand.

Add my name to the list of the many who have read two or three chapters of Da Vinci Code. Already the stagey cliff hanger chapter endings were exhausting. It was clear there was far too much of it yet to come. New rule of thumb: Never take book recommendations (or restaurant recommendations) from someone you know don't know well. I actually like thrillers. This one didn't thrill and the characters were dead in the water. Just face it Dan, you can't put the hero in a turtleneck.

I never got past the Paris police having a cryptology department, why? What do they do all day? Are french criminals forever leaving clues in code? That and every other puzzle seemed to be an anagram (the anagram is to puzzles what sarcasm is to wit), and every other cliffhanger seemed to be "Suddenly he saw the answer, it was... [end of chapter]" It was the description of Le Petit Versailles that was the final straw, I swear to god it must have been copied word for word out of a guidebook.

I think the Parisian Cryptology Department had all been seconded from Gotham City, Dan - the Riddler was always leaving clues in code. "What nationality moves quickly?" "I got it, Batman! Russian - rushing, you see?" "hmmm, and there's an exhibition of Russian artwork at the Gotham Museum this week..." Does make you wonder though. Perhaps French criminals are so insouciant and daring that simply stealing jewels or kidnapping the mayor's beautiful daughter are not enough for them, they have to leave a tantalising clue. Perhaps the French version of Crimewatch is like watching Jonathan Creek "Perhaps you know something about this torn playing card, a Four of Spades, left at the scene of the murder, and what about this sentence underlined in Moby Dick, with the cryptic note in the margin "Measured Tread around St Paul's (nine)" - or maybe you've seen someone order an Enigma machine on ebay. If so, give us a call" (I know Dan will get the crossword clue, it's one of the few I remember. It was in Right Ho Jeeves...)

WRONG david floyd -- come and learn about hinduism -- it's got a totally different world view compared to Christianity, Islam or any other religion -- even the much touted Buddhism (which is an offshoot of hinduism) --

After agonising about that all day, and then giving up and asking other people, who agonised about it whilst I slept, one of them googled it and discovered you remembered it wrong. Should have been: 'Do you do the Observer crossword puzzle by any chance?' 'I solve it at breakfast on Sunday mornings.' 'Not the whole lot?' 'Oh yes.' 'Every clue?' 'I have never failed yet. I find it ridiculously simple.' 'Then what's all that song and dance about the measured tread OF SAINTS round St Paul's?' 'Oh, I guessed that immediately. The answer, of course, is... [cliffhanger will not be answered until you've read yet another chapter about that ridiculous albino masochist killing people]

You're right, I did omit Saints. I realise now why it is relevant - it is a Saint's name divided by another word. sorry Dan!

One description in The Da Vinci Code: "the place reminded me of the film Eyes Wide Shut." Brilliant! Here's my new novel. "My day was mostly like the first twenty minutes of Minority Report and then everything went well weird and it reminded me of the scene in the train station from Elephant Man. After that, it was pretty much Total Recall backwards. The End."

Dear Santa Maria. That is BAD!

hahaha bad is an understatement. i finished the book only because i wanted to see what happens in the end. it was like driving past a car wreck and no matter how hard you try you can't look away. that and... utter shite. my god.. who the hell told this man he can write? and why the hell do people like his writing? and the ending.. complete and utter cheese. i'm disappointed in myself for reading it.

i saw it in oxfam the other day for 50p ... thank god i didn't waste 50p on it ...

a duck of few clucks is our Hen..

I am a woman but no, I did not like it. Two chapters was all I could cope with and I found the writing cliched and clumsy. There is a market for storytellers rather than eloquent writers but I found it hard to engage with any of the characters, let alone be interested in the plot. I don't think Leonardo would have liked it either but hey, hoorah for the diversity of all our tastes....it should mean that all of us have something to offer to different types of folks. It was good saving that 50p Fish but I think that those moth-eaten dead man's slippers were not really a bargain.

I read the book last month while travelling overnight on the train. Finished it a day later at home. I read it because it was talked about so much and a Muslim friend mentioned that Jesus wasn't exactly the sort of person I believed in! The writing was good enough but the story certainly rather far fetched and in a way disgusting too. Satanic rights and religion all mixed up. If taken at face value it is a degrading of Christianity. This is not the first book to marry Mary Magdalene to Jesus. Why the sacred public sexual rights to keep the line going?A story made up just for the sake of shocking ---perhaps! Salman Rushdie had the fatva clapped on him for much less. Christians believe in ignoring such rubbish

Okay, the book put forward an interesting riddle, and I learned some things about the art world that I didn't know. But the only reason I finished it was because I was interested in that riddle. Dan Brown's writing was cliched and his characters were not particularly believable. Don't those people ever need to sleep? In my opinion, however, Brown's worst fault lay in the way he talked down to the reader. I was driven nearly mad by all the times he spelled things out - I wanted to yell 'I know that! I'm not stupid!' dozens of times while I read. I got the distinct feeling that Brown thought he was cleverer than his readership, and I personally deeply resented that.