The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel Angels & Demons. The Da Vinci Code follows "symbologist" Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu after a murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris causes them to become involved in a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene having had a child together.
Stats for nerds
6recommend
108mentions
99people
2007–2026years
6% recommend56% neutral38% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- The biggest tip is to read fun books. Pick up an easy dumb page turner like The Da Vinci Code, and reading won’t be a chore. Save the non-fiction and literary fiction for when you get more in the habit. Also, it’s ok to give up on a book if it’s not interesting.
- I have genuinely been surprised by all the negative comments about Dan Brown and his novels. I read his novels when I was in middle/high school (in a developing country) and I loved them, especially The Da Vinci Code. I remember waiting to get my hands on it from the school library and then reading the entire novel in one sitting (which was a first for me).
It's been ages since I have read one of his books. After seeing multiple threads like this I am reluctant to read again one of his books. I am afraid that I might "overwrite/destroy" the good memories I have of the "feeling" of reading his books.
- Although I do agree with criticisms of his writing and have felt the same in his later books (as I was too young to feel the poor writing when I read A&D, Da Vinci Code etc.), I know that I'll get his next book when it releases.
I like that his works mention random things that you can then read about from other sources, information that are tangents to search off of. It helps that all his books are easy page-turning reads.
But yeah, about his writing, I remember the latest (Origin) having some atrocious lines
- I know some tech people who are capable of absorbing difficult material, but who never read for pleasure (and that means especially fiction). I think dyslexia may play a part in it.
If reading is really a chore for you, try looking for movies with more literate scripts. Many good writers have written for film, and in most genres.
If reading itself is not the problem and you are just easily bored, don't try to start with "serious" literature, but look for anything that grabs your attention. Not all of these are to my taste, but they have been broadly popular: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979), The Da Vinci Code (2003), The Big Sleep (1939), The Color out of Space (1927) (short), The Hunt for Red October (1984), Hondo (1953), Get Shorty (1990).
- He received some vitriol in the 2000s from some Christian groups about Da Vinci Code being blasphemous. I think these days he’s mostly just seen as a bit of a literary punching bag who makes popular, digestible books for Gen-X Americans. I read DVC in high school and thought it was a fun read, definitely not a book I’d expect someone to be later criticized for.
Perhaps it’s a bit like Michael Bay or Roblox or The Bachelor, smart people being overly critical of popular things mostly just because they’re popular.
- Off topic but I had a very interesting experience reading Dan Brown. I read 'The da Vinci Code' without knowing anything about it or Brown, and I really enjoyed reading it. Then I saw the movie and I immediately recognized the massive holes in the plot, holes that I never saw while reading it. It surprised me.
