Books I Loathed discussion

Anybody else hate Dan Brown's work? I tried reading the Da Vinci code and gave up, the first book that ever happened with. It was so gray and dry and overly detailed ("He could taste the familiar tang of museum air - an arid, deionized essence that carried a faint hint of carbon - the product of industrial, coal-filter dehumidifiers that ran around the clock to counteract the corrosive carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors") I had to stop to keep myself from tearing my eyeballs out of my head. His mindless mangling of historical and religious facts was downright offensive, and even more than that, his writing is terrible. I know Brown is an international bestseller and is laughing all the way to the bank, but does anybody else agree with me?

I totally agree. I feel like the idea of his stories is usually good, but his execution is horrendous. He uses SO many bad writing cliches and his characters are steamroller-flat. All his books begin with the mysterious death of an old man, somehow randomly associated with Robert Langdon. Langdon then finds some nondescript, but beautiful woman to help him figure out a mystery hidden in artwork & architecture. The bad guy is always somehow connected to a religious organization. And the worst is always the endings. He builds up to them SO much, and then just really lets his readers down. I think the very worst was the ending of The Lost Symbol. Just wretched.

I don't think I made it past the first chapter of The Da Vinci Code--twice.

Ha! lol, Sandi.

You have to appreciate it for what it is- a movie screenplay- if you expect Brown to be good literature you are disappointed- if you want a grade B Hollywood ride it's not so bad. The right mindset is the key.

I have affectionate memories of DaVinci Code. It caused me to read a lot of other books and do a lot of Googling and I learned a lot (granted, all that research led me and other readers to realize how inaccurate the book was.) I tried reading Angels and Demons but I didn't get very far. I think once was enough for his style of writing. I have no interest in reading the new one. I can't remember what it's called and in an act of protest, I refuse to Google it. Viva la revolucion!!

Memorable for convoluted logic, poor scholarship, and terrible prose. The only thing I liked about this book was I didn't have to pay for the copy I read. I found it lying in a pile of year old magazines while deployed to the Middle East. I would have been better off reading back issues of Good Housekeeping.

I won't slag him too much. He gets people reading and interested in art and history at least. I'm trying not to think too much about him increasing paranoia about CERN.

Mallie wrote:You could make the same argument about Penthouse Letters ("at least it gets people reading") but I wouldn't call it the best thing people can read.

HAHA. Well I can't argue with that. There is hack fiction all over the best seller list so nothing new there. I am more concerned about the inaccuracies the books propagate. But I did go to a talk about the errors in the DaVinci Code years ago before I was completely sick of hearing about it and the academic there said it had been great for business. Also the gym of a local Middle School was full for the talk so that was gratifying.

You don't think Jackie Collins is great literature??? Elitist!

I totally agree about the Brown hype. I was still sick of hearing about DaVinci when the new book came out.

Mallie wrote: Vanessa -- if people are still reading Jackie Collins in 100 years, I'll eat every word (Star Trek Geek Reference! 10 points if you know it!)

I am usually the first one to spot a Trek reference (and I can't wait until an alien ghost possesses my laptop so I can tell it to compute pi to the last digit) but I am missing this one. You must be getting tricksy and throwing a DS9 reference at me :)

It's so true you can't predict what will be popular in 100 years. Or less. If you were to go back and tell someone in the 1970's that "Rock n Roll Hootchie Koo" would be a staple of classic radio one day, I can't help but think they'd be like "Are you from Candid Camera?"

Dan Brown is a hack. And not a good one, either. I've read much more interesting (and better written) "thrillers" over the years -- I truly believe, that had he not gained all the publicity for his controversial views on Catholicism and Jesus, no one would have read this travesty of the publishing industry. It was trite and predictable. I mean, we all read crap sometimes, but this isn't even well-written crap!

Was anyone else insufferably annoyed by a roomful of DaVinci scholars who couldn't figure out the first puzzle? Ruined the rest of the book for me, not that there was much to ruin.

And he seems to write to page count, realizing that he only has 50 or so pages left to work with and rushes through the ending. With only one ending to work with, it should be a lot easier to manage, space-wise.

The sad thing about Dan Brown is admitting it bounced nicely from chapter to chapter and kept you going. But it is awfully written and and the story is totally obvious I'm afraid.

I bought Da Vinci Code for around 5 dollars and it was worth those 5 bucks. He had his JK Rowling Moments where he would spend more time than needed detailing less than important stuff. But, as I did with JK (before I gave up), I scanned or skipped.

Now, Angels and Demons? I got minutes into that before I had a deja vu moment. Those books are identical twins.

Jscorse wrote: "You have to appreciate it for what it is- a movie screenplay- if you expect Brown to be good literature you are disappointed- if you want a grade B Hollywood ride it's not so bad. The right mindset..."

I have read movie screenplays adapted to book form that I have enjoyed in the right mindset. Michael Crighton and Nora Ephron comes to mind. Perhaps not world literature classics, but acceptably entertaining reading.

Dan Brown isn't a movie screenplay writer. He hasn't written the books as movie screenplays, and that's why the movies differ very much from the books - Akiva Goldsman did an amazing job, in my mind, but he knows how to write a decent action movie script.

No, Dan Brown TAUGHT ENGLISH IN HIGH SCHOOL. It is totally unacceptable for someone who gets paid for teaching English to English speaking people, to write so badly. Unacceptable and unforgivable.
I screamed "kill your darlings!", after someone watched into or along the pistol pipe third and fourth and fifth and nth time in Da Vinci Code.

The only reason I read it was the amazing advertisement campaign. It was about themes I'm interested in, so I bought it (in a book sale, two months after it was published in Swedish... that should have told me something :-D)

I liked Angels and Demons better than Da Vinci Code. I read Angels and Demons, because the theme was interesting and I liked the ambigram on the cover :-D It is also written before Da Vinci Code, and this fact made me hate Da Vinci Code even more. It is a copy of Angels and Demons, worse written (if possible) and the original and interesting that was in it, was from Angels and Demons. I suppose he ripped that too from something else I haven't read yet :-D (For some reason it is quite easy to think he has ripped all "his ideas" from someone else.)

Now, I have to admit I haven't read what he wrote before Robert Langdon. It could be better.

But - I have to say that for a writer he is very inspiring... As Stephen King said about the Magic Moment "when you put down some book and say "this really sucks! I can do better than this! This got published!" :-D

Ketutar wrote: Now, I have to admit I haven't read what he wrote before Robert Langdon. It could be better.

A coworker got on a Dan Brown kick (he freely mixes high and low brow--he has three kids under six so he has a lot of distractions :) and he went back and read an older book or two and reported they weren't very good.

Just in case anyone in this crowd was tempted to give him another chance.

Rhialto wrote: "Well, I think he is amply punished by having to endure the sneers of all the serious readers and writers as he staggers to the bank, under enormous loads of money."

Agree! Come on, we know they aren't literary masterpieces but just see them for what they are - they're real page turners - and they've really got people talking too!

Don't think the movies did them any favours though!

I was so disappointed in Da Vinci Code. I ran out & got the hard cover & just couldn't get past a couple of chapters. Someone at work saw me reading it & asked could they have it when I finished. I just handed it to her & said, It's yours. Could not stand the writing & characters-well, as you said Sarah (sort of), What characters?
I love the line about the straw that broke the camel's back breaking yours. lol
And if you want to induce vomiting, I suggest Chuck Palahniuk. Almost anything, but maybe especially Choke. Gross but at least, imo, the man can write.

the davinci code movie sucked big time.

Sarah wrote: "Sherri wrote: "They are page turners for some, I'll agree (although I didn't take long to find I'd turned too many pages already)."

Ahaha, exactly.

I got maybe a chapter or two in and had to stop. I've never read anything more boring in my life, and in those brief couple of chapters I already found offensive, outright lies about certain things. i stopped reading out of boredom, but I don't know he got away with such outright historical inadequacies. http://bit.ly/11GbXS (or the The Telegraph if that's deleted by a spam filter)lists twenty of the best examples of Brown's bad writing.

Sometimes I'm turning pages just to see how many are left.

That is so funny.
And so true.

I tried to read A & D but honestly, only a few pages in, I thought the plot and characters were so silly! I burst out laughing and tossed the book away. My goodness, what rubbish his books are. Absolute stinkers.

Dan Brown just read Holy Blood, Holy Grail and turned it into a novel, I think....(Da Vinci Code I mean) at least it sure seems that way

Xox wrote: "Someone suffered through Lost Symbol.

Spoiler alert!

The story ended up with finding the fucking bible. What a load of religious crap. The writing is bad, but to preach using h..."

From what I read of the Da Vinci Code it seemed to be anti-religious, if anything. And I find nothing wrong with religion in writing. It's the plot, characters, and bad writing I take issue with.

CYBER RAGE (I read brown's name)!

Everyone has their opinions but I love Dan Brown and his book but that doesn't make me stupid or means I have bad taste

Joanne♥~Bookworm Extraordinaire wrote: "Everyone has their opinions but I love Dan Brown and his book but that doesn't make me stupid or means I have bad taste"

Here, here!

There's nothing wrong with reading popular literature. I'm an English teacher, but I still enjoy reading light stuff now and then. The problem I have with Dan Brown is that he isn't even good "crap" lit. He's trite, predictable, and the writing is awful. I read The Da Vinci Code for a book club and found it to be predictable. (Oh, wow, nothing changes at the end -- big surprise.)

I agree with the comment directly above and realised it after the first page so gave it straight back to the owner.

I feel like I'm the only one who enjoyed this book but...well, i did. I actually really liked it. While I can see your issues with his writing style, I found that because the plot was so good, I could just overlook some of the boring parts, altho the boring parts were very important to the book.