2006: The Da Vinci Code

No one seems to remember who chose this book to read. Or maybe no one wants to admit it in retrospect! I don't recall much of our discussion, but I do remember a few things:

• many of the girls were not familiar with the history of the Catholic Church, so they didn't know what to believe about certain parts of the story
• many believed much of the book was fact
• some absolutely hated it

As you know, I always have an opinion, so here's what I thought: It was poorly written, inaccurate and irritating. Why, you ask?

• If you read Dan Brown's intro to the book, he states that it is a work of fiction, but that all descriptions of artwork, etc. etc. are accurate ... but if that's true, then the premise of his book must also be true, and what he's really saying is that his characters are fictitious but everything else is really true.
• Even the things he claims are accurate - like the # of windows in the Louve - are wrong. Why didn't he do some basic fact checking before publishing?
• I enjoy a good mystery. A good mystery is one that keeps you guessing, making you turn every page hoping for a clue, rushing to get to the end of the book to find out the answer, but at the same time wishing it would go on forever because it's such a joy to read. This book certainly made me want to turn the page to find the solution, but with the feeling of "Oh please, can you get to the point? Oh no, not ANOTHER interruption! When will this ever end?!" It seemed like every time he was about to reveal the "truth", someone busted in to the room, or the main characters had to run out of the room, or something equally as irritating.

I think this would have been a much better book if Brown left out his introduction, and dropped a few of the interruptions. Our ratings were all over the place for this book: 1, 4, 6.5, 7, 8x2, 9 and 10x2. There were 9 voters, which means that the official rating was: 7.1.