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Anticipation grows for Brown book
It hasn’t even reached bookstores yet, but experts are already predicting that Dan Brown’s forthcoming book, The Lost Symbol, will be the biggest-selling book of the year when it hits shelves this September. The new novel is a sequel to The Da Vinci Code and once again features Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon.
The new title was deliberately chosen to be “as opaque as possible”, according to a source close to the project. “Dan Brown is so phenomenally successful that anything he says in relation to his books can spawn a whole publishing industry in itself.” Brown had previously hinted that his next novel would be set in America and concern freemasonry, just as The Da Vinci Code delved into the religious organisation Opus Dei, and its predecessor, Angels & Demons, tackled a secret society called the Illuminati. His books have antagonised Christian groups and upset sensitive lovers of fine English prose but their protests have been drowned out by record-breaking sales.
Analysts say reader anticipation for the book will likely spark the sort of hysteria that surrounded the releases of the Harry Potter books. Any Dan Brown fans who can’t wait for his latest release?
back to top29 Comments to “Anticipation grows for Brown book”
I have not read Brown’s books.
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I wonder if this book will also be based on “facts.”
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I’ve read them all. A couple I read twice. I found them in the FICTION section of the bookstore.
I will also probably read this one if it isn’t too “formula” as in I made a gazillion dollars writing like this and I will change a few details and spit out another.
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Wow. A conspiracy book about the Freemasons. How original.
I read the Da Vinci Code. Got it at the library. I didn’t want to pay for it. Very flat unoriginal characters. A college professor in a tweed jacket, an albino assassin. Jeez.
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I agree with KBells, I also read Da Vinci and found it not very compelling at all Very thin, wooden characters and hardly the page-turner that everyone touted it to be.
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I haven’t read any of Brown’s books, though I found it interesting Paris has a Da Vinci Code Tour–and at least one of the historic churches points out stuff from the book.
Of course the top of Notre Dame included posters with quotes from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I, personally, thought very curious.
As long as it makes money, anything seems to be acceptable . . . to some.
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I’d rather read a book by Klasko than Dan Brown.
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Once, when I was very bored, I picked up his book. After reading a few lines, I was even more bored. I promptly put it down.
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He he.
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Just read the “Da Vinci” code a couple weeks ago. The book was far better than the movie, and I thought it was pretty good. It gave me something to read on the commute. In fact, I just picked up “Angels and Demons” from the library as well. So far, it is also interesting and a good read. I really don’t understand why people get so worked up about fiction. Brown does seem to have it in for Christianity
(Catholicism in particular), but one would have to be weak-minded indeed to actually buy any of it as fact. Read a book before you judge it.
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You know, I saw the DaVinci Code and knew it was imaginative fiction. I also managed to survive National Treasure without believing there really is a map drawn on the back of the Constitution in invisible ink.
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Life is short, and we simply don’t have time to read everything that’s ever been written. Maybe if I expected to live 1,000 years I would eventually get around to reading Dan Brown (even then, it’s doubtful); but since my life expectancy is considerably shorter, I need a good reason to commit a certain amount of time to a book. From everything I’ve heard, his books are poorly written, agenda driven and offensive to my faith. I’ll pass, thanks.
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SteveG–
Kbells, Zane Grey and Conan-Doyle have dragged the Freemasons through enough (and Mormons), Brown should pick on a new secret society.
My problem with Brown was not his bent, but his writing. He’s a potboiler writer. Quite the page turner. He makes money like Danielle Steel, but I prefer good writing as well as a good story.
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Kbells, Zane Grey and Conan-Doyle have dragged the Freemasons through enough (and Mormons), Brown should pick on a new secret society.
There is that.
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Does KLasko have a book we can read?
I have a book that is “unpolished and too unique” and another almost finished, equally unpolished, but hopefully the right amount of unique.
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I’ve read them all. A couple I read twice. I found them in the FICTION section of the bookstore.
The same place, by the way, where you’ll find Schindler’s List. But most people are aware that The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction.
I wonder if this book will also be based on “facts.”
There were a couple of little known historical facts in the book. Unfortunately, they were mixed in with all kinds of lies, legends, myths, and disinformation. And since Brown stated that even though it was a fictional book, all the “historical facts” were true, a lot of people now buy the DVC theory of history.
And the remarks about Brown’s books being potboilers is dead on. Did you ever read how he got started writing? Supposedly he was lying on a beach on vacation, reading a book by Sidney Sheldon, one of the biggest hacks of the 1960s and 1970s. After reading it, he thought “I can do this.” Then he read Holy Blood, Holy Grail and realized he could give it the Sidney Sheldon treatment, and the rest is history.
As far as the Freemasons, if anyone wants to read some interesting books about them, try The Hiram Key and The Book of Hiram (in that order, since that’s the order they were written in.)
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Still working on it KBells. I’ll let you know when i’m done with it.
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In this genre, I just finished reading The Eight which was written in the 80’s but I just found. It is based on the Freemason’s keeping a secret, the French Revolution and the game of chess.
There is a sequel, Fire, which I am going to have to order.
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“I also managed to survive National Treasure without believing there really is a map drawn on the back of the Constitution in invisible ink.”
(In best outraged tone)
OH YEAH!??? Have you ever LOOKED on the back of the constitution? HMMMMM?
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Seriously, I had fun watching the movie – it reminded me of National Treasure too. I haven’t picked up a copy of the book yet though. Who know? Maybe I’ll do that one day…
I’m not really sure why Christians would get so worked up over such obvious fiction?…. Maybe because the gullible would take it seriously?
That’s a stretch…
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I just love the condescending tone I have gotten from some people for reading certain books. I read a lot. I mean at least a book a week and sometimes I want light and frivolous. I have read quite a few books that made me scratch my head and think…did the author get confused? Did no one proof read this?
I love Jonathan Kellerman. I also like to read his wife Faye Kellerman. I refuse to read their son’s book because I feel like over the past 20 years I have contributed enough to his education.
I like to read Nora Roberts when I want to feel good and believe in romance. I especially like to read her when she writes as JD Robb. (Where oh where is Lon Cheney?)
Tasha Alexander has a trio of books set in the Victorian Age that I have enjoyed. I made you all suffer through The Shack with me. (who did the Bible study on it and how did it go?) I had a problem with God appearing as a black woman until I read that the authors parents had been missionaries. Maybe that was the most comforting person he could think of to make God-like.
I also have been reading Single by Judy Ford on how to be single. I have been reading Be Your Own Best Friend.
I really used to like reading biographies, but that came with its own set of problems. I turn into historian/researcher and by the time I am finished, I am just exhausted.
I also liked watching National Treasure. I think the reason there are so many conspiracies around the Masonic Order is that people just really don’t understand it. I grew up in a house with a set of Masonic Encyclopedias and right now could go put my hands on a Masonic Ritual. To me it really isn’t that much different than Knights of Columbus in the Catholic church. They do at least recognize that God is the Great Architect.
I was a Rainbow Girl growing up. Almost 90% of the ritual was taken straight from Genesis, Eccleciastes, and the New Testament.
In Rainbow Girls there are 7 lessons: Love, Religion, Nature, Immortality, Fidelity, Patriotism, and Service. The Sister of Faith guides the initiate through the 7 lessons. When she is finished with the 7 lessons she is guided to the Sister of Hope and then to Charity.
Believe me, in todays world there are a lot worse groups a young girl could belong to….and I got to wear pretty formal dresses.
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I’d rather read a book by Kbells than Dan Brown . . . (actually meant to write that earlier but I just got home)
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I would rather read a book than have to work for a living
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Well, now, Kim, you might rethink that if you had to read some of the manuscripts I’ve had to read . . .
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24. I know what you mean. I once helped judge a playwriting contest.
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You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but Dan Brown would like to fool all of his readers all of the time.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
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I guess the problems that many Christians have with Dan Brown are:
1) He takes himself and what he writes seriously (i.e. he more than half believes it and spends good parts of his books trying to “convince” his readers.)
2) LOTS of otherwise normal people took his book to be more than fiction and his “facts” as real.
3) He is virulently anti-Christian and it comes through heavily in his writing, and he’s passed that feeling on to all the people who read his books and took them seriously.
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4.) And all the people he’s fooled. He needs a millstone.
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I read DaVinci Code back in summer ‘04, and found it pretty entertaining…simply a religious version of a Michael Crichton novel. It’s fun reading, as long as you don’t try to live your life by it. The movie version stunk, sadly, but ah well. I still need to read Angels and Demons to see how that one is.
But this one, supposedly set in D.C., and revolving around freemasons, should also be entertaining (and probably light on facts!). But really…there’s tons of good reads out there on masons, conspiracies, and the like. Dan Brown, though, has the name brand. Be interesting to see if he can still deliver.
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