Fuseball wrote:BlackJedi wrote:20thCenturyBoy wrote:So...no-one reading Dan Brown then?
Don't get me started on Dan Bloody Brown. I have been known to rant for half an hour on The Da Vinci Code.
Tell me about it. Everyone who has read it in the shop (Ottakar's in Staines) has said the same thing - it's dreadfully written but somehow flys off the shelves. No accounting for the general public's taste is there?
Its one of those books for people who don't normally read.
I've noticed this with my inner circle of mates and in the workplace. I have a couple of friends who are big readers like myself and at work there's the usual crew who like a good book. The rest are never really into books at all.
Then suddenly a book comes along and all the non-readers seem to be raving about it. I've seen this happen with quite a few books. Bravo Two Zero was one. Ice Station by that New Zealand bloke was another. And of course The Da Vinci code seems to be the latest.
What these books have in common is that they're in-your-eyes-out-your-arse easy reads that make the casual reader feel like he's read somehing pretty good. Probably makes them really feel part of the literati.
The more discerning reader may find them a bit shit.
That doesn't make them particularly poor books though. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a Clive Cussler, sometimes I'm not.
I see Dan Brown's stuff as a kind of B-Movie type of thing. Entertaining in a lurid sort of way. Ideal fodder for the people who find most books too complicated.
Unfortunately, there's a mass of hype around The Da Vinci Code that's just pure bullshit. The way people treat it as accurate non-fiction to the extent that they've brought their own book out as a companion to it is quite astonishing.
