Worst book ever?

That title is probably an exaggeration because if it was the worst book ever I would simply have put it down and not plodded through to the end.

Except that perhaps I did stick it out because I felt obligated to since so many August moms were talking about it and saying it will enhance the trip to DC and such. Without that peer pressure I am fairly certain I would have tossed this aside somewhere around chapter 75,000. (ok, that was a slight exaggeration, there are only 60,000 – hah!)

Now, I read The Da Vinci code back about 4 years ago. I was given the one with all the lovely pictures of the pieces of art and other things referenced in that tale. While I don’t remember *loving* that book and feeling like I needed to read more Dan Brown (I’ve never read Angels & Demons), I also don’t remember thinking I would *never* read another of his books.

I will never read another of his books!

Yes, I know that in the post below when I was only about 1/3 through it that I was singing the praises of the quick pace and the short chapters which make it easy to just sneak in a chapter here and there in my busy life.

Yeah, I soon tired of that.

I think it may have been about the 14th  time some character *suddenly* had *something enormous* dawn on him/her and the description of how it *shook the fiber of their being*

Or maybe it was the 33rd time that someone realized that what they *thought* was a Huge Revelation was really only a very very partial reveal. You see, there were Layers. Lots and lots of intricate Layers and apparently it was impossible to just RIP those mystical Layers off without examining each one – and it’s extended surroundings in very minute detail (my eyes glazed over a LOT and I started skipping whole paragraphs a LOT).

Or maybe it was the 8th time that it was declared that pretty much every single mystery of life had been solved by the ancient philosophers & scientists centuries ago but that rather than actually share these findings completely, they had hidden them in symbolism and secret male only clubs and rituals handed down from generation to generation which guarded those secrets with their lives and these secret conspiracies were behind All That Was Important and Powerful century after century and and and….ohmygawdnowIunderstandwhatitallmeans!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah – no, I don’t.

Maybe I just am not patient enough to put up with Dan Brown’s style of writing.  I crave clarity at the end of a book.  I hated that every revelation was really just a teasing of another. It was like an eternal game of  Guess What? No, I am guessing – just tell me for cripessake!!

The only true “twist” in the story that was of any interest was one I figured out back in chapter 15,000 (give or take a few hundred).  Even then, it was poorly fleshed out and made NO sense to me given how the characters had been fleshed out to that point. I felt zero connection TO the characters so I truly didn’t care if they lived or not. And while I am way more like Robert Langdon in my overall skepticism of religion and mystical things, I grew so so tired of the endless debates about science and religion. Particularly at the end when it felt as if Dan Brown was preaching.

And his one reference to twitter as if to show how trendy he is? Felt disconnected and thrown in there to show how trendy he is. Lame.

The whole gist of the book is finding The Word. Well, I have a word for your book Mr Dan Brown – it’s even pretty trendy:

FAIL!