Da Vinci Code (1 Viewer)

[The Thing]

I would recommend Dan Brown's 'Da Vinci Code'. It's clever and intelligent and moves along at a cracking pace. Just don't believe the hype... it's not as controversial as people are making out.

If anybody tells you it's anti-church, they haven't read the whole book because it all turns round in the last 50 pages or so...

 

[Saponification]

Intelligent?

I will hold my tongue...

I will hold my tongue...

I will hold my tongue...

 

[waylander]

Since the plot is about France and takes place here in my country, there has been a lot of articles in reliable French magazines and I can tell you that 90%
of what is said in the book is pure bull****.

I know of all the places Brown has mentionned, having lived in Paris and in the Saint-Sulpioe church district for long years.
What he refers to does not exist.

And I know what I am talking about, since I have read the book. I forced myself to finish it because it is badly-written, uninteresting and so full of historical, architectural mistakes that Harry Potter is a non-fictional document compared to it.

So well, let's not about that book AGAIN, please. There are so many better books to read than this one !!

 

[aliceedelweiss]

I really like dan brown, and wanted to read the de vince code. But my dad(i'm only 15 -_-) said its too anti religion so he doesn't approve of me reading it. Bull! if i want to read it let me read it! but if people don't like it so much, who knows, maybe I shouldn't waste my time on it.....ohs wells. lol. I probably won't be ALLOWED to read it anyways.
alice

 

[The Thing]

It is a work of fiction. It is not real. I enjoyed it, and so have many others.

When I said it was intelligent I was referring to the little puzzles littered throughout. They kept me interested. Maybe I'm simple.

If people are dumb enough to take it as fact maybe they believe Middle Earth is a real place.

Maybe I should spell it out to anybody who hasn't read this book yet: You will find it under the FICTION section of your local bookstore. If you do, however, find it under non-fiction, then the shop owner is an idiot.

I will now stop waffling.

 

[Lizra]

I read the Da Vinci Code.
And I admit I liked it after finishing it, at first.
But then I decided to read Angels & Demons, also by Dan Brown.
And I don’t know if I was the only one to notice how alike in plot the books were.
So I came to the conclusion that he just wanted his knowledge to be expressed in a novel form so he could attract a wider range of audiences.
But honestly, the "facts" that he wrote about are not all that "intelligent", most not even true.

That’s my take on it, but I understand why some people enjoy that book, because I did too.

 

[lisajane]

*coughs*

 

[Talia_Brie]

Intelligent?

I will hold my tongue...

I will hold my tongue...

I will hold my tongue...

I will hold my tongue...

I will hold my tongue...

I will hold my tongue...

No I can't.

Intelligent? Are you mad?

It's not even well written!

I crap more creativity than is evident in Dan Brown's writing.

 

[blademasterzzz]

It is an excellent piece of writing, worthy of being remembered along with the art works that my dog deposited on my lawn.

 

[huni]

(I posted this at the other Da Vinci thread, so I hope no one minds me pasting it here as well. I'm being lazy. If it's inappropriate or confusing maybe a mod. could just remove one of them. I love the 'discussion' around this book. It's really not worth it but seems to have created so much interest!! )


I read it. Not once did I pause at a wonderful phrase or go to make a cup of tea so I could mull over a new way Dan Brown expressed something. I never caught my breathe in the way good writing makes me do. The strongest sense of disbelief and cynicism was my reading companion.

Yet I couldn't put the book down. He can't write for peanuts in any real sense but does he hold your attention and create suspense? Yes for me he did. Can I remember anything meaningful from the reading of it? No.

BUT please tell me this? Has anyone read the little book called "The Da Vinci Cod. a fishy tale"?

I won't spoil the read for anyone but be warned don't read it on a train, don't read it on a plane, don't read it anywhere in public if you are easily embarrassed and have a funny bone to speak of. Don't read it if you have a bladder problem and don't read it if you have unsympathetic friends with an intellectual-only view on life.

Otherwise - Read it. Tell me what you think. And let me rest with the knowledge that it really is that good and I am not certifiably insane. (Which is what a cafe full of smart people did think, when I was trying to read it over my hot chocolate). I read the back cover and almost collapsed with laughter right there in the book aisle of K-Mart. Now here's a writer that knows how to digress with style.

It helps to have read the Dan Brown version, but is not imperative I don't imagine. regards huni.

 

[Marsieux]

Everybody I know told me that it is probably one of the best books they've ever read. Sheep, every last one of them!

Horribly written, awkward transitions from present to past, and some of the solutions to situations are so childish! For example, Madonna of the Rocks and Sophie threatening to ruin it. Are you kidding me? Dr. Suess could've come up with something more clever than that.

However, I will concede the fact he kept my attention in some unexplainable fashion. The suspense was good and I suppose Dan Brown is a prime example of how an interesting and original plot can exceed a writer's ability and still be somewhat entertaining.

Oh yeah, anybody interested in the movie? Summer 2006, Tom Hanks, Alfred Molina, Ian McKellan, and Ron Howard. Maybe we'll get something out of it.

 

[EmuJenkins]

The story got kind of boring after a while. I didnt like it. Stephen King beats him out when it comes to crap.

 

[blademasterzzz]

Steven King's characters are multi-dimensional, his plots very gripping and interesting, and he is about a million times better than Dan Brown.

 

[valeca]

I'm about 3/4's of the way through it now. I'm rather enjoying it. I was surprised such poor writing made it off the presses, but it's entertainment.

Facts and location? Pfftt, when I read fiction, I'm willing to put that aside in favour of a good story. Suspension of disbelief anyone...?

So what if putting her knee through the painting was a simple solution. Some elaborately concocted sceme in that moment would have been ridiculus.

What he did was take some little bits and wove them together so they made sort of linear sense. They don't have to be true, or even accurate, as long as they jive together.

If I had to name something about the book I didn't like, it'd be the constant use of making the reader wait (especially at the beginning). There were times it got irritating...then again, it did cause me to turn pages.

 

[Talia_Brie]

I wrote this rant on another thread, but it relates to Val's last comment.

I'm ashamed to say I'm reading The Davinci Code. I guess I just had to know what all the fuss is about.

So far it's a very well paced story, and it reminds me a lot fo the writing style that Matthew Reilly uses. Reilly is an Australian author who writes frantically paced action thrillers.

I would describe both Brown and Reilly's work as being 'unputdownable' (which is a really terrible word gaining common usage, but that's a whole other argument). But in saying that I'm not necessarily saying the books were excellent, just that they are difficult to put down.

And the reason for this, I think, isn't the story itself (though Reilly's stories are exciting and would make excellent movies), but the structure. Both Reilly and Brown end all their chapters with cliffhangers (in the case of Ice Station quite literally, with one chapter ending with two characters actually hanging over the edge of a cliff on a Maghook).

They're like those movie serials you read about (or perhaps saw if you're old enough) where the superhero/spy/adventureer would end the episode with their car flying out over the edge of a cliff (gasp) only to begin again next week, two seconds previously and jumping from the car. Annie Wilkes has something to say about that (you'll understand that reference if you've read Misery, otherwise ignore).

This is a blatant, but effective, way of manipulating the reader into having a heightened opinion of the book because they find themselves staying up until 12.30 in the morning, as I did last night, waiting for somethign to get resolved so they can go to bed.

And that's today's rant.

 

[ataylor]

I found the Da Vinci Code to be a real letdown, after all of the hype. The plot was only mildly engaging, and it wasn't even written that well :/ Still see people wandering around and saying how good it is though...

 

[Heid]

I aint read it yet but two of my close mates say it's an excellent book. (These are not the sort of people who follow crowds either. If they say something is good then that is what they think of it, not what the media / society says it is)

I was in two states of mind whether to give it a try or not. I didn't want to read it because it's a commercial success. I know that just 'cos something is popular doesn't mean it's good (Crazy Frog anyone? )

But on the other hand I don't want to avoid the book because alot of people (particularly on this site, who are heavily into reading) say that it's basically naff, self-indulgent pap (I love that word)

I will probably read it in good time and decide for myself what I think of it. I'm not one of those people who can dissect a book; examine the styles, themes and other quirks etc. If a book interests me, it interests me.

And away I go....

 

[NoWorries]

The writing is the worst writing you can possibly imagine. It took me about three days to get through the first chapter...but then I don't know if the writing gets better, or if my brain repressed some of my knowledge of good books, and then I could read it just as well as any other book. Only a few places towards the end did I look up and say, "That's the most cliche sentence I've ever read." Or, "Jeese, this guy really can't write."

Having been to Paris, Edinburgh, and London as a tourist, I thought it fun to follow the story through those cities, trying to remember if that's how it was. I'm not sure if it would do the same for someone whod never been. I felt like it romantisized Paris and made London feel dirty...but then I already though Paris was romantic and London is dirty...so I guess it would read the same if you hadn't been to the settings, except Edinburgh, it didn't feel right in the book at all.

I love history and I'm mildly interested in secret societies, so I enjoyed the plot immensley. At the beginning you feel like it might be a real plot, with a real climax and end, but it's not, it starts out strong and then oooooooooozes to the end, but the history and mystery stays with it.

When I was done I read "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells and I again realized how badly Dan Brown writes.

I'm glad I read it, but I won't recommend for or against.

 

[Ki]

Has anyone read the little book called "The Da Vinci Cod. a fishy tale"?

That was written by a professor at my uni! Well, from what I know it was...
I ain't read 'The Da Vinci Code' but apparently there's mentions of my uni in it too...(so someone who has read it says but I wouldn't know)

 

[Stewart]

I would recommend Dan Brown's 'Da Vinci Code'. It's clever and intelligent and moves along at a cracking pace.

It’s neither clever nor intelligent.

I know of all the places Brown has mentionned, having lived in Paris and in the Saint-Sulpioe church district for long years.

As far as I know he gets the geography the wrong way round at the end, too. His other novels fare no better in getting the location right and make mistake after mistake, which is shambolic given that Brown claims to visit all the locations involved in his fiction.

I really like dan brown, and wanted to read the de vince code. But my dad(i'm only 15 -_-) said its too anti religion so he doesn't approve of me reading it.

Has your dad actually read it or is he a God-fearing hype monkey? You get a lot of these people who are ready to protest against things without knowing what they are actually doing or saying. Politicians are good at this when children get murdered and a film, game, or singer takes centrestage to shoulder the blame, when the blame is always on the parents.

When I said it was intelligent I was referring to the little puzzles littered throughout.

The puzzles were so obvious that the reader was able to solve them pages and pages before the main characters who are, supposedly, qualified in this sort of thing. Their diplomas, should this be the case, are probably cheap photocopies with their names scribbled on them. I doubt Robert Langdon could do a Soduku.

You will find it under the FICTION section of your local bookstore.

Yes, but the outcry isn’t because it’s fiction it’s because of the biggest bit of fiction prior to the narrative which states that a bunch of crap is true.

I came to the conclusion that he just wanted his knowledge to be expressed in a novel form.

He doesn't have any knowledge.

Yet I couldn't put the book down. He can't write for peanuts in any real sense but does he hold your attention and create suspense? Yes for me he did.

I will concede the fact he kept my attention in some unexplainable fashion.

The reason for this is that he’s using a plot device. It’s the short chapters that end with incident that mean you just have to read on. Unfortunately for Dan Brown with four books under his belt (five, if you count his torrid The Traveler under the pseudonym of John Twelve Hawks) he doesn’t know any other plot devices. Actually, it would seem he doesn’t know any other plots.

Everybody I know told me that it is probably one of the best books they've ever read. Sheep, every last one of them!

Not necessarily everyone is a sheep for enjoying it. They may not be readers and, as such, The Da Vinci Code is a book (of 500+ pages) that they have managed to get through all by themselves. By having read no other books they have no basis upon which to ground their praise and it is therefore enjoyable to them.

Stephen King beats him out when it comes to crap.

You’re right, because no body produces more crap than Stephen King.

If I had to name something about the book I didn't like, it'd be the constant use of making the reader wait...

So, you didn’t mind the clumsy writing which began on page one?

So far it's a very well paced story, and it reminds me a lot of the writing style that Matthew Reilly uses. Reilly is an Australian author who writes frantically paced action thrillers.

I would describe both Brown and Reilly's work as being 'unputdownable' (which is a really terrible word gaining common usage, but that's a whole other argument). But in saying that I'm not necessarily saying the books were excellent, just that they are difficult to put down.

A friend of mine described Matthew Reilly’s writing as being “the literary equivalent of picking at a scab” and, after reading a couple of short stories on Reilly’s site, I can only agree. Reilly is one guy who really doesn’t know how to write. He doesn’t know how to use italics, punctuation, or words. And his! Sentences get. Real short. Like this! KEERPOW! It’s fiction for those with attention deficit disorder – one story, for example, had 40 individually titled chapters within seventeen pages.

I love history and I'm mildly interested in secret societies, so I enjoyed the plot immensley.

If you haven’t read it already then I thouroughly recommend Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco, the definitive novel on secret societies, conspiracy theory, and history.