The Da Vinci Code; Dan Brown

Okay.

I read it.  Finally.

I didn't understand its popularity and the hysteria that seethed around it in a mass of annoyed Catholics and other Christian groups.

So I listened to two sermons by Father Robert Barron and I guess I get their point.  The claim in the book that Christ wasn't or isn't divine would be cause for annoyance and uproar--

If the whole thing hadn't seemed quite so ridiculous.  And Father Barron did a good job in his first sermon on the topic of saying why the claim that Christ's divinity was an invention of the 4th Century was so ridiculous.

I guess I'll speak apart from all of the anti-Catholic sentiment that the book, I don't know, espouses?  I will simply treat this as a work of fiction.  Which it is.  Does Brown even make the claim that everything in it is true?  I hope not.

In any case.  Why was this book even popular?  I'm guessing because it tread in such highly charged waters.  It took on a subject in a fictional and adventurous sense that other books and authors hadn't.  That is the only reason I can see for its popularity.

It was a mystery/adventure story.  Is.  Whatever.  As far as I'm concerned... it wasn't that great.  It was interesting enough, I suppose, and there were some very "clever" puzzles, but it nothing new, and nothing that absorbing.  Brown makes good use of suspense and holding on to it as long as possible to keep interest going.  He has interesting timing.

But I saw nothing in the book that particularly makes me think it deserves to be in the company of some of the other books on this list.  His characters were unimaginative and saw very little growth throughout the course of the story.  The plot was... foreseeable.

The only particularly good thing about this book being on the list was that because it was so easy to read, it didn't cause me to pause in reveries of thought and self-searching, even as Moby Dick did in many places.

I wouldn't place it very high on any reading list.  There are SO many other, worthier titles -- even as far as children's books, that I would recommend.

Feel free to argue with me.  I would love to see more merit in this book.  My parents were here so it took me like three days to read it; which is just embarrassing.