The DaVinci Code

I suppose I'm the last person alive to actually read The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. I've seen the movie several times and always liked it. I don't read many novels (I think I've only read 2-3 since starting this blog), but a couple of weeks ago my wife and I were headed to the beach for a weekend and I was in the mood for some light reading.

I've never read a book after seeing its respective movie. Although it seems silly to do so, it was interesting to experience this reverse perspective. The book and the movie follow unbelievably parallel paths; both were very, very similar in my view. But as expected, the book provided significantly more.

The predominate difference, and I suppose this is a characteristic difference between all books and their movies, is that only the book allows you to experience what the characters are thinking. It's more than just added detail; it's the addition of personal introspection that divides a book from its movie.

And Dan Brown delivers. It's hard to tell where fact departs from fiction. But he certainly does his homework. There is certainly enough fact to make everything in DaVinci seem extremely plausible, even to hardcore history buffs like me.

And although I'm still skeptical of the broader genre of historical fiction, I'm going to read the rest of Brown's books. I mistakenly chose The DaVinci Code because I believed it was his first novel; I will go back to the beginning. Looks like Digital Fortess is next in my fictional lineup...