Any Dan Brown fans here?

[a.ratchasi]

Wow! How did I miss this thread?!
Will get back once I have done my share of reading!

Thanks for redirecting me here, NOV!

[NOV]

what i dont understand is that when you re-read something...you may forget some parts but mostly you remember the everything else...doesn't that bore you?...or can you actually find new things and understand the story more so as you read it each time over?

Actually I have 100s of books, and I cannot remember all the plots except for some familiarity. Mostly I read them at about five year intervals. I just finished reading Exodus, which I last read in the 80s!
Some books I do read again for better comprehension and these inclkude all Harry Potter and now Dan Brown books. At the first reading, I get carried away by the suspense and good writing that I miss some important tho minor stuff.
Also, once you know the ending, when you re read them, you tend to understand the author's descriptions, better. Like seeing a movie for a second time.

Welcome AR!

[a.ratchasi]

Also, once you know the ending, when you re read them, you tend to understand the author's descriptions, better.

Agreed 100%!

The excitement overtakes the finer points of words.
Thereafter, rereading prevails!!

Among all the others books, I would say I have read RKN, Roald Dahl and Mahabharat numerous times more.

And not forgetting biographies of certain historical figures.

[Roshan]

Also, once you know the ending, when you re read them, you tend to understand the author's descriptions, better.

Very True!!


NOV and Cygs,

You guys tempted me so much - that I bought 'Da Vinci Code' yesterday .I'll get back once I'm done with it.

[blahblah]

Oohm!I hope NOV doesn't work for the distributor of all Dan Brown books.

[Roshan]

@ blah blah

[Cygnus]

Roshan, great to hear that you've started DVC, I just finished Angels& Demons, it was even better!! I got to find time and write my thoughts about these books. I did not expect to get entangled in mystery fiction this much.
Happy reading!

[NOV]

Blah Blah, how I wish.
I would probably be a millionnaire by now.

Roshan, looking forward to your opinion. But one word of caution: take every thing with a pinch of salt.

Cygnus, great to hear that you liked A&D. I felt that it had a better ending than DVC. Please share your thoughts about these two books.

I am now into my 2nd reading of DVC.

[NOV]

WARNING: If you have not read the Da Vinci Code, skip my entire posting, as the plot is somewhat revealed......


On the Da Vinci Trail

You’ve read the book, now it’s time to hit the road. Sonia Faleiro decodes the route

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, a breathtaking tale of religion, art and skulduggery, has captured the global literary imagination. And literary travellers are following in the footsteps of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon and Catholic sect Opus Dei in their quest for the Holy Grail—scouring the novel’s key locales in Paris, New York, Edinburgh, London and Rome for cryptic symbols hidden in Leonardo da Vinci’s artwork, and in the chapels and historic sites mentioned in the novel. So without giving away any secrets, here is a suggested tour with corresponding highlights from the book.


PARIS

FICTION: In Chapter 1, Langdon is awakened at the Hotel Ritz by the midnight arrival of the judicial police who inform him that the curator of the Louvre museum, Jacques Saunière, whom Langdon had an appointment with, has been brutally murdered.

FACT: Since its inauguration in 1898 by César Ritz, the hotel has been synonymous with unabashed luxury and classic style. The Ritz Escoffier cooking school, the Hemingway Bar and the Athenian swimming pool have indulged Coco Chanel, the Prince of Wales and Elton John, all of whom have suites named after them.

FICTION: In his dying moments, Saunière adjusted his body in the shape of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Vitruvian Man at the Louvre’s Grand Gallery, and scribbled a cryptic message on and around himself. His intention was simple: The secret must not die.

FACT: Tourists linger for hours over the gallery’s Italian section of Da Vincis, Titans, Raphaels and Arcimboldos. Leonardo’s favourite painting, the Mona Lisa or La Joconde in French, hangs in the gallery, protected by barriers, surveillance cameras and guards. The 24-year-old wife of Florentine millionaire Francesco del Giocondo was supposedly captured in oils in 1503, but Langdon debates this date as well as the secret of her mysterious smile.

FICTION: A quest for the truth takes Opus Dei member, the albino monk-assassin Silas, to Saint-Sulpice, a 17th-century cathedral overseen by nun Sister Sandrine.

FACT: Known as the Rive Gauche, the cathedral was the christening ground of the Marquis de Sade and Charles Baudelaire, and writer Victor Hugo celebrated his nuptials under the two Delacroix frescoes of Jacob Wrestling with the Angel and Heliodorus Driven from the Temple. The Rose Line, a narrow brass strip that marks the original zero-longitude line, is used by Silas as a landmark in his unholy mission.

FICTION: Unable to open Saunière’s Cryptex, Langdon and Saunière’s granddaughter Sophie Nevew, head to the home of Grail researcher Leigh Teabing.

FACT: Architect Francois Mansart built the 17th-century Château Villette, near the Château de Versailles in 1668 for Louis XIV’s ambassador to Venice. Known as la Petite Versailles, the mansion is three storeys high and sixty metres long, with 18 rooms and 17 bathrooms. It overlooks a stunning garden and pond designed by the architect of the gardens at Versailles, André Le Nôtre. Not a tourist destination, the Château may be rented for 6,500 euros daily for a minimum of one week.


ROME

FICTION: Opus Dei’s Bishop Manuel Aringarosa is invited to a secret meeting with the Secretariat Vaticana at Castle Gandolfo, deep in the Alban Hills. He departs the gloomy castle with the price of freedom.

FACT: The Castle Gandolfo on Albano Lake outside Rome has been the Pope’s summer residence since the 17th century.

Built in 1626 by architect Carlo Maderno, the palace offers views of expansive greens, the Tyrrhenian Sea, the nearby Church of Saint Thomas of Villanova and the Pontiff’s Palace. Its Renaissance structure is an appropriate cocoon for the Vatican Observatory and Astronomy Library, the latter holding 25,000 rare works of Copernicus and Kepler, among others.


NEW YORK

FICTION: Described by Brown as an exceedingly conservative and wealthy organisation that demands chastity and corporeal mortification of its members, Opus Dei is a personal prelature founded in 1928 by St Josemaría Escrivá. It has 80,000 members, and its headquarters and prelatic church are in Rome.

FACT: Unmarked but remarkably conceived, its American centre is a 33,000-square-foot monolith on 243 Lexington Avenue. It was designed by the firm of Max & Pinska for more than $47 million and incorporates seven marbled chapels and sacristies, 100 bedrooms, six dining rooms, meeting halls and libraries. It has separate entrances for men and women on different streets.


SCOTLAND

FICTION: After breaking the second Cryptex Code, Langdon and Sophie Nevew proceed to the miner’s village of Roslin, outside Edinburgh where the novel culminates.

FACT: Built by the Knight’s Templar in 1446, the Rosslyn Chapel is as memorable for its quantity of stone carvings and religious symbols as for its mythical status as the dwelling place of the Holy Grail.

According to Brown, ‘‘ground-penetrating radar revealed the presence of an astonishing structure beneath the chapel—Not only did this deep vault dwarf the chapel atop it, but it appeared to have no entrance or exit. Archaeologists petitioned to begin blasting through the bedrock to reach the mysterious chamber, but the Rosslyn Trust expressly forbade any excavation of the sacred site.’’


And thus, the mystery continues.


http://www.indianexpress.com/full_st...ntent_id=48158

[a.ratchasi]

http://www.magdalene.org/holygrail.htm