I was very worried that this would be a post in appreciation of a sequel to one of the dumbest books ever to make it to the NYT's list.

I'm more than pleasantly surprised.

Heh. I have actually read (I feel a little shiver of shame in admitting this) all of Brown's books -- not for literary enrichment, but because they were the first books that my father, a I'll-wait-for-the-movie guy, sat down to read in, well, my lifetime. They fill a nice niche -- middle-aged man fantasy fiction posing as an intellectual pursuit. And I think you've hit it right on the head -- I've often thought perhaps Dan Brown gave up on writing because, having reached the pinnacle of actual fantasty fulfillment, he had no further ideas.

So I'm surprised to hear there's a sequel. What's next? "Robert Langdon found himself, at 53, wealthy beyond his wildest dreams and called upon by god to investigate..."

Thanks, Leigh. But now I'm worried that you could have thought, even for a moment, that we would be fans of The Da Vinci Code.

Karin -- Intellectuals? Us? Hahahahaha, good one! I picked up Eat Pray Love before it became mega famous, because I like travel narratives, but I decided to give it a pass.

Saturn -- I think I know where you're coming from. I read a Nelson DeMille thriller not long ago, only because my dad recommended it. He liked it and it gave us something to talk about and that's the important thing, right?

long before any hubbub, TdVC was a selection for our book club. The hostess for that evening, and the one responsible for leading the exegesis (ha!) was someone who actually believed it to be true! But then, she was kind of a crystal pyramid type anyway. When I ventured an opinion that if he got so many things wrong in his hermeneutics, why place any belief in anything he had to say, well, she got a bit huffy.

No, will not add to his riches.

I've been subsisting on old Ian McEwan, Anita Brookner and Christopher Isherwood novels for years.

I read Angels and Demons, having heard a lot of buzz about DaVinci. I remember very little of it except two things that put me off in the very beginning. One was that rocket ships were to become the dominant means of air transportation within the next decade or so, being so much faster and more efficient than current planes(!). The other was some bit of silliness about words that read the same right side up and upside down. It was held to be a marvelous discovery that it was possible to write some words and names this way; Dan Brown had obviously never thought about the possibility of words like "pod".

I try never to argue with M. Chariot, but reading old Ian McEwan is hardly merely subsisting! What a literature for life.

And yes, the conversation was the point, Biblio, and it was nice, for a while, to talk of books -- even these.

Oh please, God, no. An irretrievable piece of my life was lost reading the Code, just so Ms. Stim could no longer say, "How can you criticize a book you've never read?" Much like The Bridges of Madison County, the Code is a book for people who don't read books.

I wonder if Brown was facing a breach of contract and finally had to churn out something.

yes, I can appreciate all these comments here. One would hope hat Dan did a wee bit more research this time following the errors found in his book the Da Vinci code. Art experts, for example, are still trying to work out how one character managed to wrap a painting round them when it is apparently painted on stone.

Oh I am so glad now for the path not taken.

At the risk of enraging the community here, I loved the DaVinci Code and have never understood the depth of distain for it. It reads fast and easy. It imagines a plausible explanation for the secondary status afforded women in Christianity.

This is an imagining, a fiction. He made it up. And his critics screech about an implausibility or two or twenty. Who gives a shit? It was fun to read. I absolutely loved it and loved the movie as well. If he wants to sit on an island and count his money, why is that any skin off my nose?

I was dragged to the movie version of The Da Vinci Code by a friend. I found myself (as a Medievalist and a Francophile) fascinated by the subject matter. After all, every few years, some would be mythologist "discovers" something about Mary Magdalen, the Black Madonnas of Southern France and the Goddess who granted the king the right to rule, not just in Wales and Ireland, but also in England and France.

As it turned out, the now late (died in November 2008) French dabbler Jean Bertrand, better known by his pseudonym Jean Markale, wrote extensively on the same subject matter Brown hacked his way through. (This guy taught writing at a toney private school, Phillips Exeter! Quelle horreur!)

Although Markale was something of a New Ager, self-promoter and (sadly) plagiarist, he could write better than Brown. Brown is a pretty useless fellow. He was able to teach because his dad was associated with Phillips Exeter. He was able to write because he married a woman (much older?) who is an editor. Nepotism, thy name is Dan.

The names Brown used in the Da Vinci Code are the real names of people whose lives were entwined with that area of France and several scandals.

Considering that Dan and his wife have authored several humorous books together, I am convinced that they set out to satirize an area and a saint long part of French popular culture and gossip.

I wonder what Mary Magdalen detests more? Having been mistakenly identified as the prostitute who washed Jesus' feet with her hair? Being part of Brown's cheesy novel (based on having read the first two and the last two pages . . . unreadable!)?

Barry, I would enjoy hearing more about your reading club experiences. I have never joined a reading group and have heard that they are either 1.) wonderful, or 2.) hideous. No middle ground, apparently.

Padraig, I stand by my prediction that there will be no sequel.

M. Chariot, that seems very wise. I went on a Christopher Isherwood reading binge while living in Berlin, quite enjoyable.

Rob, even fiction has to be believable within the world it creates for itself. Brown recognized that in his spy thrillers, but not in the museum novels, it seems.

Stim, sometimes, if a book is bad enough, it can be almost as much fun as a really good book. Still, I'm sorry for your loss (of time.)

jonmagee -- IF (IF) there is a sequel, it will not address the sins of the Da Vinci Code.

Stacey, you are a wise man...

jimmymac1025 -- finally someone who has read the book and enjoyed it! I love escapist reading as much as anyone, but as others have pointed out, it stretched credulity to the breaking point. And no, I have no problem with Brown enjoying his riches. He cracked the code (the exact combination of bestseller elements) and he has been rewarded.

Susan Wozniak -- thanks for these fascinating facts. It seems that the more a reader knows about history or science, the less likely they are to enjoy the book.

S&H (ha! remember Green Stamps?) I had posted about our book club of some 27 years in duration and its recent demise. You may remember it once you see it again as you had a comment there. We're in the process of reincarnating it as a smaller group now.

http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=18441

I share in the enormous relief that this is not in praise of a book I couldn't finish - I could barely start it - and in the fervent hope that your prediction comes true.

Interesting discussion, Biblio. 2, maybe 3 weak books. Ready to tackle Jean Auel?

I read it on the train. My commute is so short (maybe 10 mins.) that the chapters were the perfect length for each trip. Clearly, it was written with the idea of its becoming a screenplay (given the short, choppy scenes)... since that is where the real money comes from.

Back when I was a bookseller at B&N, I loved this book solely because its popularity and the fact that EVERY SINGLE CUSTOMER who walked in the door was looking for it meant that my job was very easy.

I didn't read the book because I read a sample chapter and thought it wasn't very good. I guess I was right. :-)

I saw the movie though. I liked it but then I don't require as much from a movie as I do a book.

i couldn't bring myself to try the books, though i'm still trying to make myself. maybe i'll be surprised. i did sit through the ridiculous movie--which was far worse than even my low low expectations--though ron howard may be to blame.

but regardless of our own opinions, i think you're right that a sequel is likely to turn out badly for him. it will be nearly impossible to match the expectations of people who DID like the first book, so he's most likely to just diminish it. and does he really need more money? it's hard to know what the point would be.

(FYI, my agent was executive editor at doubleday when those were published. i doubt she was directly involved, but would have had a front row seat when it all went on. i'll ask what she thinks of dan and his potential motives.)

Good post. Yeah, he can wait forever as far as I'm concerned. But the DaVinci code (I actually did read the whole thing, somehow) managed an interesting trick, reversing the normal order of interest in trash reading ... that is, you wade through the tedious exposition and indigestible fork-lifted historical research to get to the good parts -- chases, fights, love scenes, action and suspense. In Brown's book the 'exciting' material was implausible and excruciatingly dull. The only interesting parts were the apparently bogus factoids about religion, the Pope, and the Holy Grail (most of which he cribbed from other writers anyway). When your exposition is your strong point, look out.

Did anyone, like me, find that The Da Vinci Code had zero surprises? Each time I turned the page, I knew what was coming next. Only on the very last page did I get a surprise. And that's a "thriller?"

I should mention that I didn't read the book for YEARS, which made it a little awkward in the bookstore when people wanted to talk about it. I hate to see any book atop the bestseller list for 52, 104, or more weeks. No book is that good.

Barry -- why yes I do remember green stamps. And I did recall your book club post, I was wondering if you'd found or formed a new group.

Sanjuro -- I think Las Vegas oddsmakers are no longer taking bets, it's such a sure thing.

Thanks, Stellaa!

Tim4change -- My hunch about Jane Auel was that she actually cared about the stories she was writing, unlike Dan Brown.

ktm -- Michael Crichton did the same thing, wrote books that were meant to be screenplays, but he did it better, I think.

Katie Ett -- haha! Steve has similar memories of just handing out a copy to everyone who walked in the door of the bookstore.

Two Questions.

1. If you hold "The DaVinci Code" in such disdain, why are you reading about the sequel's release?

2. Would you please send me a list of your best sellers?

Bob

When I first heard about the DaVinci Code, and people started describing the plot to me, I thought, "Wow, that is really really familiar." My brother and I had read a book on the Knights Templar about 15 years before the Code was published and had been fascinated with all the same details everyone was ooh and aahing about. But I was kind of laughing, too, because it was all very old news to me. Then he got accused of ripping the thing off of someone else and I thought, "Well, duh!"

Gee, what a bunch of snobbish poseurs!!

Brown is simply a popular novelist. Think of him as Charles Dickens, except alive and less fat. He fills the same niche as Dickens, and uses the same writing style. It is, like Dickens, not great literature, but he sure understands the "cliff-hanger-at-the-end-of-each-chapter" theory of writing.

No. There I must draw the line. I can accept that some people enjoy reading Dan Brown. I mean, de gustibus non est disputandum, and all that. I must, however, ask that you refrain from comparing him to Charles Dickens. Dickens churned them out, yes, and he wrote the occassional clunker -- but you'd have a hard time find a single phrase in his entire body of work as clumsy, banal and infelicitous as any random sentence culled from Mr. Brown's oeuvre.

jimmymac-- Fast and easy read? Is that a virtue? I became very angry in high school (we had to read six books over the summer, not the measly one kids read today, as well as one book each of the ten months of the academic year in addition to required in class reading) when I read the book April Snow by Lillian Budd during the summer between junior and senior years. What a colossal waste of time, despite being "fast and easy." It was one step beyond Danielle Steel, a slightly more mature junior novel. I remember confronting Sister Leonard, who taught 12th grade English, about the book. There was no there there, to snatch a cliche.

She explained to me that the list had to include all levels because it was an open list for all students.

Later, while working as a cashier at a discount department store during college, I remember how coworkers demonstrated their intellectual superiority to their husbands on Superbowl Sunday. They all bought copies of the National Enquirer to read while their hubbies watched the game.

I agree with Stim, Brown's body of work is for people who don't read.

Geez, you guys must spend all your time reading "Pilgrim's Progress" and marveling at your own virtuous dedication to the Holy Canon of Inspirational Literature.

I read both "A&D" and "TdVC" and thought that both were first-rate popular fiction. My Charles Dickens comparison is quite spot-on, in my opinion. Much of today's "great literature" was written by people like Dan Brown. Is he as good as Joyce Carol Oates? Of course not, but she is almost unreadable at times. Is he as good as 50-60-70 novelists? No, of course not. But his books are light, fun, and filled with really wacky stuff, much of which is cribbed from other, lesser novelists. But, gee, since when is literary theft a capital offense? As Picasso said, "Good artists borrow, great artists steal." So, the notion that his status is diminished because he cribbed the plot from some other less glossy and superficial craftsman is simply ridiculous.

For those high-minded snobs sneering away, what is your opinion of Harry Potter?

I enjoyed the basic plot of "The DaVinci Code" -- sure, it's far-fetched and silly, but so was "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and that was one of the favorite films of my childhood. And as a voracious reader, I know that not every book has to be "War & Peace" or "East of Eden" to be entertaining. I don't mind a good bit of page-turning fluff.

But even for fluff, it took a lot to get past the wooden writing and extremely convenient plot contrivances to appreciate the mild entertainment it gave. And it took me four pages of "Angels and Demons" to decide that I'd just wait for the movie to come out -- it would be less of an investment of my time.

If you go to any of the DIY book review sites and check out the reviews of Da Vinci Code, you will find among the many howlers variations on this, I swear to god: "The Da Vinci Code is the best book I ever read. The other one wasn't as good."

paris -- thanks for the link, very funny! I thought I'd lost the plot during the bunnies and ninjas battle, but it all became clear. Peeps!

Kaysong, I agree about lower standards for movies, maybe it's because it's only a few hours. I dunno.

Dave Cullen -- I would be very interested in what your agent has to say about this.

Thanks Steven Axelrod, I was wondering what you thought about the novel. I think you've put your finger on it.

Randy Smith, do you find that you read a lot of books that you wouldn't choose yourself, because you want to be able to talk about them with customers?

Robert Russell -- Surely you don't think someone needs to be an expert before they have an opinion about something. If I get a crappy meal in a restaurant, I'm sure to have an opinion about it even if I am not a gourmet chef. But I meant this post to be about the futility (and unlikeliness) of Dan Brown actually writing another book. I admire the guy for figuring out how to write and market a bestseller and become rich. Good writing is beside the point.

Well, Biblio ... now you've gone and encouraged me, so I have a fed more things to say. "The Corrections" came out at the same time as the DaVinci code and I noticed that many of the people who loved Dan Brown's book hated Jonathan Franzen's. I know JF acted like an infantile turd about the Oprah show, but his writing is sharp and funny and dense with feeling. Every sentence is like opening a Christmas present. The book bristles with ideas, lists, comic set-pieces, absurdity and heartbreak. At the end, as Hemingway said, you remember "What the people did and what they said and how the weather was" -- the bleak mid-western winter that conjures "the whole northern religion of things coming to an end."
Even comparing this giddy sublime masterpiece to Dan Brown's hack job is kind of an insult, but the point is worth making: of all the pleasures available in literature, Brown offers only the crudest -- plot and information. The lizard brain longs to know what happens next, and likes to feel smart. Dan Brown offers puzzles and then solves them for you, offers shiny sound-bite 'facts', delivers suspense and then releases the (generally unearned) tension (Do you really believe a French detective wouldn't know that armored cars are equipped with LoJack transponders?) with easy getaways and cheap theatrics. Brown's book doesn't contain a single original idea, authentic moment or vivid character. You can't find one interesting metaphor or sprightly sentence. It's fast food, feeding that what-happens-next hunger, and you finish the book feeling like a kid on the day after a Halloween candy jag.
This isn't academic snobbery as some of your other commenters have said. Suggesting that there's more to eat in the world than candy bars doesn't make you an effete 'foodie' either. If you ate nothing but candy bars, you'd die. If you read nothing but Dan Brown it's your aesthetic sense that dies. Yeah, you can live without it, but why should you? Good writing is fun -- high-grade fun that Dan Brown can't supply. Here's quick made-up example --
Dan Brown might describe the loving glance of the woman to whom the hero has just proposed, like so:
"She gave him a look of innocent sweetness."
Something trite like that. But take a real writer ... Ring Lardner, for instance .... and this moment leaps off the page, makes you
smile, and turns reading into the kind of fun only good writing can provide:
"She gave him a look you could pour over a waffle."
That's real writing. The DaVinci Code isn't.

Biblio you will note that I did not ask why you wrote the post, I asked why others read it. You are entitled to you opinion, all are. But again if the book was such trash, why the interest in the sequel? And, still waiting on that best seller list.

RR

Wine snobs, music snobs, book snobs, whatever......

It's all the same. When it's small and unknown, it's trendy and wonderful. If it's popular and makes a lot of money, it must be trash.

I'm not really sure why I stopped by since the posts here were as predictable as Brown's plots. The books were an enjoyable read, and I've certainly spent a worse afternoon or two......

I wasn't expecting great literature when I purchased the Da Vinci Code but I found it very interesting. The reaction of the Church hierarchy was instructive. In the book, Brown says that they caused the death of 3,000,000 women for the purpose of consolidating the power of men in the church. Does anyone know if this is true or is it just part of the story? Judging by the learned comments here I would hope that someone would know.

I'm not sure that these people (the church hierarchy) even believe in the existence of God as the matter of the abuse cases was so badly mishandled. It was as if the reputation of the Church was considered more important than the protection of children. If there is a sequel and it causes the hierarchy more grief then it's fine by me.

By Russell's standards, no one can't comment on anything unless they've done it themselves. It's a ludicrous stance -- unless you've written a bestseller or a TV show or directed a movie or climbed Mt. Everest or trained as a chef no one is allowed to have an opinion. God, save me from this kind of lame thinking. I might ask: why does everyone have to validate YOUR opinions.?I don't happen to like his books or writing, but I don't care if you do. It's called freedom of thought/speech.

That should read: No one can comment...

Copy of The Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abramelin_the_Mage....
www.esotericarchives.com/abramelin/abramelin.htm

pokemon.... art of Durer...
Abra.... psychic pokemon....


"..... works on magic, whether MS. or printed, knows the enormous and incredible number of errors in the sigils, pentacles, and Hebrew or Chaldee names, which have arisen from ignorant transcription and reproduction; this being carried to such an extent that in some cases the use of the distorted formulas given would actually have the effect of producing the very opposite result to that expected from them. (I have commented at length on this subject in my notes to the Key of Solomon,----

published by me a few years ago.) Wherefore Abraham the Jew it......"

read somewhere the Vatican's official position on Dan Brown was very, well.... somewhere behind him with a ready boot....
they didn't appreciate his first work whatsoever....
this should thrill them even more....
can't see anything else in the future... and I've had an NDE and two (clairvoyant) exp.'s saying what I wasn't ready for when it happened was going to happen and well... yah...

Simple Simon Magus 101B.... lol
tc ttyl
'crickett"

To me the most wonderful thing about The DaVinci Code were the thousands of people who believed it to be based in fact. THAT would have made a great reality TV show

Russell quoting Russell, "[Biblio] you are entitled to your opinion, ALL are." (Emphasis added) "ALL" includes you emma.

RR

I thought I was the only one ... I read about 25 pages then skipped to the end and read the last 25. I skipped completely over Angels & Demons and didn't even know there was a sequel.
Thanks for the picture of Opie :) adorable and for making me feel less of a literary outcast!

I am trying to understand the depths of hostility to Dan Brown. I have to admit that it escapes me.

Brown is in the same class as popular novelists. Novelists like JK Rowling, Clive Cussler, Crichton, Steven King, and so forth. His prose is wooden. His plots are hackneyed. His characters are .75 dimensional.

And....

Basically, what's going on is ENVY, pure and simple. People cannot believe that he is a bad writer AND a billionaire.