Dan Brown

Sometimes we miss things that we used to believe were really bad. Myself, I miss the blue screens of death that happened with reassuring regularity on Windows machines before the current XP iteration. It's the same with really crap "holiday and bathroom" books, you know the sort that you could happily tear out a few pages and do the last shallow wipe with? Happily, here's Dan Brown! I really do not understand why people don't know he is a Len Deighton clone with an internet connection and Google access.

Most of the time I feel the need to justify sweeping statements, and back up opions I have, particularly when my opinions are particularly negative. In the case of Dan Brown, I don't. Dan Brown's books: Nonsense. Some typical rebuttals: "But Ben, he's massively popular." His books are nonsense. People that read them like nonsense books. That's fine by me, like what you want. But they're nonsense. "He's bringing people back to reading." His books are nonsense. People that return to reading because of him should stick to Wife Swap. "I bet you wish you were Dan Brown." His books are nonsense. You're talking nonsense. "Well, everyone else likes his books, it must be YOU that's talking nonsense." His books are nonsense. I don't care if I'm the last man standing that says it. And, yes, I've read enough of his nonsense to legitimately form that opinion. Ben

Dan Brown is a genius. Before I open 'The Illustrated Da Vinci Code' on a random page in Ottakars, I had no idea that you could lay down the Eiffel tower and fit it however many times it was inside the Louvre. Now I don't need to go there!