More fun reading

[yendi]

Slamming Dan Brown is, admittedly, much like shooting fish in a barrel (although most fish don't publish bestselling novels). But Teresa Nielsen Hayden's post from last Thursday is still very worth reading. If nothing else, because it links to this anagram poem she composed in honor of kradical.

What? Can you tell I've been catching up on blog-reading while I was sick?

Comments

[silme.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I did like this one. I'm always overjoyed to read more criticism of Brown, who seems to have developed his own empire nowadays. :(

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

Should I be embarrassed that I actually enjoyed that book? Although my favorite part was when the Christians at work read it, and told me subsequently, "I feel like I understand you, now!" (re: my paganism.)

Seriously, I thought it was an enjoyable mystery, until the last 75 or so pages when it just needed to wrap up and end. Also liked his book "Deception Point", but couldn't stand "Angels and Demons" (trite and gory) or "Digital Fortress" (I've read better character descriptions in romance novels.)

Feh. Anyway, bottom line is that I enjoyed the book as entertaining trash that pleasingly slammed the Catholic Church (an activity I favor.) The cast for the movie looks excellent, but as my hubby keeps pointing out, since they took out most of the church references for fear of offending them, the movie will actually have little to do with the book.

Oh, and regarding the article from Teresa Nielsen Hayden, I thought the point of the anagrams being in English was to make it harder for the French folk around them to figure them out? Or maybe I'm just making excuses.
:-)

[yendi]

Oh, no embarrassment needed (we all have guilty pleasures). And hey, if it bridged the pagan/xtian gap at work, it's healing book!

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

'most fish don't publish bestselling novels'

This gross generalization marginalizes all fish.

[yendi]

They can write me a letter telling me about it.

[digriz.livejournal.com]

lamming Dan Brown is, admittedly, much like shooting fish in a barrel

With an elephant gun. Twice. At point blank range. And with no water in said barrel.

I'm read his other 3 pieces of "craftsmanship", but haven't yet read DaVinci. Mainly because they refuse o put it out in a handy-dandy, easy-to-read-on-the-train-then-burn-when-finished paperback.

[yendi]

I've never read a single word he's written, other than lines quoted in reviews. But he seems to offer hours of amusement value.

[la-belledame.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it. He might be a bad writer, but he knows how to tell a story. I don't have an overwhelming need for everything I read to be sterling literature. If it doesn't hold me, I put it down. If it does, I keep reading. I really don't feel a need to pick an author apart*, although for shelving purposes, I wish publishers would put a cap on James Pattersons/year.

To digress, I'm currenly reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and I am enraptured.


*I make exceptions for Nicholas Sparks and Robert James Waller. But they're sucky storytellers, too.