Author Topic: The Da Vinci Code - anyone read it? (Read 1025 times)

beet1e · « **on:** August 08, 2005, 05:35:46 PM »

Well, I tried. Read the first 140 pages, but stalled. Admittedly, author Dan Brown's writing style is fluid and readable. But there is a problem: Much of the subject material concerns art and religion - two subjects that are in my dead zone. After I gave the book back to the person from whom I had borrowed it, I was told what the crux of the matter is in the story - to which my reaction was "Wow. How knickerwettingly exciting."

Just wondered if any of you bookworms out there had actually got through it.

Has DB written any books of a more secular nature? Wouldn't mind looking at one of those...

Toodle-Pip, and positive waves all over the place to those in need...

Vulcan · « **Reply #1 on:** August 08, 2005, 06:54:19 PM »

Was going to, then saw some stuff debunking all of the theories put forward and revealing the hoax behind it.

Hangtime · « **Reply #2 on:** August 08, 2005, 07:07:50 PM »

Yep. Read it. So did my kid.. great conversation piece.

Like most 'good' stories, some historical truth, tied to half-truths and pure speculation. Read it for what it is.. entertainment.

Gunslinger · « **Reply #3 on:** August 08, 2005, 07:21:08 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Hangtime
Yep. Read it. So did my kid.. great conversation piece.

Like most 'good' stories, some historical truth, tied to half-truths and pure speculation. Read it for what it is.. entertainment.

I'm glad you said that. Saved me the trouble

tapakeg · « **Reply #4 on:** August 08, 2005, 11:44:44 PM »

I downloaded the audio book

was a good listen

Tapakeg

Seagoon · « **Reply #5 on:** August 09, 2005, 11:28:05 AM »

Hi Beetle,

Unfortunately it was in my "have to read in order to be able to answer questions about it without talking through my hat" list which are generally books I don't enjoy much (like the Celestine prophecy, etc.) While Brown's writing style is indeed fairly fluid and I tried to simply read it for what it was, I got tired of the fabricated history and the vast multi-layered conspiracy and after a while it degenerated into an academic exercise for me. So, yes I've read it, but I never really empathized with Sophie or Langdon or any of the other characters and wasn't drawn into the story. Then again, I'm part of the conspiracy.

- SEAGOON

midnight Target · « **Reply #6 on:** August 09, 2005, 11:34:22 AM »

If you read it like a WW2 sim geek would watch a WW2 movie and grouse about the F6F5 in the picture when it should be an F6F3.... then you will agree with Seagoon.

Other than that it's not too bad.

Hangtime · « **Reply #7 on:** August 09, 2005, 11:34:28 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Seagoon
Then again, I'm part of the conspiracy.

- SEAGOON

LOL!! Aha! An Opus Dei Operative, enh??

straffo · « **Reply #8 on:** August 09, 2005, 11:36:36 AM »

Whe you are a former Parisian like me some "fact" used by Brown gave a good laught (and spoiled the reading

)
I remember the St Sulpice easter computer and "méridien de Paris" and I've never see a train going to Lille from St Lazare ... in 10 years going to and back from St Lazare if there was one I should have noticed it !
The train for Lille come from "gare du Nord" as allways and as it allway will !
(why the hell going west to go north after ?)

beet1e · « **Reply #9 on:** August 09, 2005, 12:19:30 PM »

The Da Vinci Code reminded me of another book I read about 30 years ago, called "The Osterman Weekend". (also made into a film, which was crap) The story looked good, and like the DVC had many hooks to make the reader want to read on, but in the end it led... nowhere. I got a strong sense of dèja vu when reading the Da Vinci Code. That, plus I probably couldn't give a stuff how it ended up.

The other book that I did read cover to cover was Kathy's Story - "A Childhood Hell Inside the Magdalen Laundries". This is an autobiographical account of a girl whose father banished her to a life inside institutions in Holy Catholic Ireland in the 1960s, where she suffered physical abuse from Roman Catholic priests and nuns. In some cases, she was raped by the very priest who preached from the pulpit against the evils of "impure thoughts". I'd already seen a TV dramatisation of a story like this. The poor girl ends up living rough, and then in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison for stealing in order to survive. As a measure of how bad those Magdalen laundries were, she said that prison life was "a breeze" compared to life in the laundries. The last of those evil laundries closed its doors in 1996! Their demise was brought about in part by the development of the domestic washing machine.

DieAz · « **Reply #10 on:** August 09, 2005, 12:22:46 PM »

I thought it was a nice, fast pace, piece of fiction.

no reason for anyone to get excited (or panties in a wad) over it, like some people did.

Hangtime · « **Reply #11 on:** August 09, 2005, 12:53:51 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by beet1e
The Da Vinci Code reminded me of another book I read about 30 years ago, called "The Osterman Weekend". (also made into a film, which was crap) The story looked good, and like the DVC had many hooks to make the reader want to read on, but in the end it led... nowhere. I got a strong sense of dèja vu when reading the Da Vinci Code. That, plus I probably couldn't give a stuff how it ended up.

Give the 'Road to Gandolfo' a try.. also by Robert Ludlum (Osterman Weekend). You WILL laugh yer bellybutton off... and I don't think he was really trying to be funny.

Replicant · « **Reply #12 on:** August 09, 2005, 02:13:55 PM »

I read it a few months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Brown certainly reignited my reading enthusiasm and I read his 'Angels and Demons' straight afterwards.

Beet, there is an illustrated version of The Da Vinci Code which would probably be better for you if you're not au fait with art and religion. You can have a look at my copy in October if you wanted to leave it till then?

beet1e · « **Reply #13 on:** August 09, 2005, 04:00:11 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Replicant
Beet, there is an illustrated version of The Da Vinci Code which would probably be better for you if you're not au fait with art and religion. You can have a look at my copy in October if you wanted to leave it till then?

Yep! Is our October meeting definitely on?

Hangtime · « **Reply #14 on:** August 09, 2005, 04:19:37 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Replicant
I read it a few months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Brown certainly reignited my reading enthusiasm and I read his 'Angels and Demons' straight afterwards.

Beet, there is an illustrated version of The Da Vinci Code which would probably be better for you if you're not au fait with art and religion. You can have a look at my copy in October if you wanted to leave it till then?

LOL.. with my kid, when she'd bang out a relevancy question, I'd nod at the computer.. 'look it up'. After she read the book, she opened a bible.. first time since she was in elementary school. Now she's a sharp as most theologians; but with a difference.. she's not trying to prove or dis-prove anything; she's much more interested in the 'history' and the impact on civilizations wrought by 'religious dogma'. She's really getting into Islam now.. tho her toughest nut so far was trying to understand the roots of the Serb/Croat conflicts.

Really; quite a handful she is.. her research and debate skills have improved dramaticaly thanks to that one miserable book.