To address the latter half of your post, I'm sure it makes wonderful kindling.
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Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Huntn
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To my mind, it is an insult to both history and literature.
"The Da Vinci Code" was a mediocre book and movie. It never ceases to amaze me that Brown won the lawsuit brought against him by the authors of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" for plagiarism. It was more than abundantly clear that he had stolen the entire premise of his book from them. Even though "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" was based on dubious claims in some areas, it at least was interesting and controversial. Browns book was neither.
Is it fair to judge it on the basis of history?
No comment on its literary value, but its genre is fiction, or gratuitously historical fiction. I can’t imagine it being considered non-fiction or historically factual any more than the Hollywood production of Titanic.
Fair comment about the Titanic.
But the story of the Da Vinci Code was trite, poorly written, and riddled with clichés.
However, on top of that, the history is risible, - and this is an area I know reasonably well as I taught it to undergrads for seven years; I'll forgive poor history, or unimaginative history, or illiterate history if the story - plot, characters (and yes, especially female characters), narrative - is good.
Actually, I love historical fiction when it is carried off well; for example, Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell novels are superb, as are those of Philip Pullman (his Sally Lockhart series).
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No argument here. I’ve not read it.
The Hollywood version of Alice in Wonderland was a pathetic inaccurate mess when compared to Carroll’s novel. Yet it was roundly successful too.
Yep. I call the “Da Vinci Code” the poor version of “Foucault’s Pendulum” by Umberto Eco (a masterpiece despite being not an easy read at all, especially the first 200 pages).
^That's exactly how I felt when I read Foucault's Pendulum. That it was the intelligent man's Da Vinci Code. 
Finished this one:
Not horrible. "Can't we all get along" theme. Cute. Nice artwork.
Same author as the above.
I wanted to read his novel Lincoln In The Bardo but they,B&N, were out of stock.
This will do.
Not horrible. "Can't we all get along" theme. Cute. Nice artwork.
Same author as the above.
I wanted to read his novel Lincoln In The Bardo but they,B&N, were out of stock.
This will do.
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Reading poetry: Seamus Heaney - "Clearances":
"The space we stood around had been emptied
Into us to keep, it penetrated
Clearances that suddenly stood open.
High cries were felled and a pure change happened."
"The space we stood around had been emptied
Into us to keep, it penetrated
Clearances that suddenly stood open.
High cries were felled and a pure change happened."
Dragon Teeth (Michael Crichton novel published 2017)- A good read about adventure in the late 19th Century US West loosely based on the factual competition between two competing Professors, hunting for dinosaur bones in the Bad Lands during the Indian War with the Sioux, using a fictional character. Historical characters find their way into this narrative- Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Sitting Bull, George Custer, Brigham Young, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Wyatt and Morgan Earp.
About to start this one… Hopefully it lives up to expectations.
Hamlet: Globe to Globe: 193,000 Miles, 197 Countries, One Play
Hamlet: Globe to Globe: 193,000 Miles, 197 Countries, One Play
About to start this one… Hopefully it lives up to expectations.
Hamlet: Globe to Globe: 193,000 Miles, 197 Countries, One Play
That sounds (and looks) fascinating; let me know how you find it.
Hmmmm, indeed.
Started Ian Rankin's 'In a House of Lies'. I have enjoyed the Rebus series.
Since I finally bit on a new Mac OS and had skipped both Sierra and High Sierra... I'm learning how to play nice with Mojave and make my iOS devices do the same. Have to say the upgrade was the smoothest I've ever experienced. I give some credit on that to another Take Control book, the one about Upgrading to Mojave. Always nice when one does not have to revert to a nuke-and-pave Plan B on an OS upgrade. I did some cleanup and made a bootable clone and a bootable copy of the installer and just went for it. Also I keep things simpler on my gear than I used to so there were fewer third party wonderments to check out before and after the upgrades. Anyway now I'm having fun checking out assorted new-to-me features in the TC book, while the first complete backup of the thing runs in the other room, now that I'm satisfied after almost a week that the conversion didn't create problems I can't deal with if necessary.
Same author as the above.
I wanted to read his novel Lincoln In The Bardo but they,B&N, were out of stock.
This will do.
THis is so very good. Best collection of short stories I've read in a long time. I haven't gotten to the novella story yet.
Books I’ve read since the beginning of the year:
- 12 Rules of Life by Jordan Peterson. Masterpiece.
- The Gratitude Diaries by Janice Kaplan. Interesting but it could’ve been shorter as it’s very repetitive.
- Twin Peaks e Filosofia by Roberto Manzocco. Italian book on David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and its Philosophy. An excellent work.
- Coach by Michael Lewis. A short book on teachers and how they can change one’s life.
Are you looking in Amazon or on their website? I use their website and the "Take Control of" books I've bought usually come in three formats -- you can take your pick of pdf, epub, MobiPocket when you've bought it, and go back and redownload again or pick another format. I use epub when I'm sticking the thing on an iOS device but sometimes just use the PDF version when using a laptop to read it. They notify via email when there's an update for free or a rewrite for a price. Their transactions go through eSellerate, they take PayPal or credit cards etc.. FAQs include info on currency conversion where that's a factor.