So I started reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Against all odds, I wasn't able to put the book down more than five times — twice of them included me staring at my alarm clock, realizing it was nearly 5 A.M., and freaking before my mom woke up. And like any fan of controversy, I love the book. It's fast, it's entertaining, it has puzzles, it's all so intricate. However, the animosity in the book is sort of confusing, and could have been rewritten to be more convincing. That respect is its only failing point.
I had a little fun with etymology as well. Being the Latin dork I am, I pulled out my dictionary while I was reading (it was within arm's reach), and looked up the root of haereticus — supposedly meaning "choice". What I found was that it meant "heretical" so I instead looked for things that I thought could be roots of heresy. I found the most convincing word in haereo, haerere — to doubt, to disbelieve. However, I also found heri, which means yesterday. I'm confident you could use either to define the word.
But god, the puzzles. I had a lot of fun with that, guessing where they would go next. The anagrams threw me off, but I found several of them that I could actually solve. I guess it's forcing me to put more complications in my novel. I wrote a bit more recently that I'm extremely proud of. One thing I've learned from reading this book is that you have to move on, no matter where you get stuck. I expect a lot more writing to be done very soon.
My recital went pretty well. I was pretty surprised myself. The whole time, I was absolutely dreading being on stage and it just came naturally once I was up there. However, once I was done, I got the hell off. You won't find me on a stage without necessity.
Read 7 comments (Leave a comment?)
Emz said:
I’ve read Dan Brown’s book too. I found it unputdownable, every time I did all I was thinking about is what’s going to happen next! Congratulations on your recital. Stage fright gets the better of me!
Posted on June 19, 2006 6:27 AM; Permalink
Mike said:
I wanted to read the DaVinci Code but decided not to because it dealt with all this religious figures and concepts. None of which I know of or would understand. Glad your recital went ok. :)
Posted on June 19, 2006 7:15 AM; Permalink
Victoria said:
I am currently reading the book. :) I just started and am finding it hard to put down. I am glad to know that there is someone else out there who has a Latin dictionary.
Posted on June 19, 2006 12:44 PM; Permalink
Judy said:
you should try reading Angels and Demons, I thought it was a lot better than The Da Vinci Code. More action and it makes more sense than the Da Vinci Code ;D Angels and Demons is the prequal to the Da Vinci Code btw
Posted on June 19, 2006 3:06 PM; Permalink
Biscuitrat said:
Yeah, my friend referred me to that. I might check out some more Dan Brown. The weird thing is, I thought I’d really hate it. I did this with Harry Potter too. I guess I’m just not a “popular” book person.
Yay! I have more summer reading to do :D
Posted on June 19, 2006 3:55 PM; Permalink
Zalette said:
I haven’t read The Da Vinci Code yet. I think I made the mistake of watching the movie before reading the book because well… the movie almost put me to sleep.
My friend said the book was a lot better then the movie though. That’s good, I guess.
Posted on June 19, 2006 8:57 PM; Permalink
Biscuitrat said:
Yeah, I still want to see it for the sake of seeing it acted out, but two things sort of turn me off that:
1) Tom Hank’s hair 2) It had some pretty iffy reviews - good action, apparently, but not enough building off of emotions in the book.
However, it had Ian McKellan, Paul Bettany and Audrey Tautou, which might make it worthwhile :)
Posted on June 19, 2006 9:27 PM; Permalink