THE DA VINCI CODE : DAN BROWN



Not since the days in secondary school have I picked up a book to read. That was during English period where we have free reading time. The teacher actually forced us to go to the school library to borrow books and record our reading progress. We also need to submit book reports for all the books read. It was a tiring process to me as I never enjoy reading books until I discovered that there are many sexual stories always depicted in the novels. Probably to make the readers awake and not sleep throughout the boring plot. Well, I started to like Sherlock Holmes because of the whole forcing process to read, which is a good thing I guess.

From then onwards until now, the only book I finished reading are The Republic of Plato and The Analects of Confucius. Both are very interesting books about philosophy of the west and east. Now, the new book that has been gathering storm for its top ranking as bestseller for a long time last year was Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. This book was first introduced to me by an Indian friend on an exchange program to my university. I remember his name is kinda cool, if I get the spellings right, it was Ashwin. By the way, he was giving some spoilers and hints of anticipation of what the book will be about.

I did not expect such extensive readings related to architecture and arts until I started picking up the book to read. The Louvre with a pyramidal glass entrance by American Chinese architect I.M.Pei was one of the main sites of the story and with references with many cathedrals around Europe as well as some other structures. Then, we go into paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and discovering secrets we yet to know. There are also some explanation about The Fibonacci numbers, Divine Proportion, PHI to Christianity. Learning about the story from the other side is always my interest. The stories of the Priory of Sion, Opus Dei and the Holy Grail have opened up new facts and knowledge I have not known and turned up pretty astonishing and shocking to me.

The research done by the Harvard Symbologist, Robert Langdon is very interesting. The puzzles, riddles, symbols, codes and ciphers discussed in the book are the ingredients that made it so interesting. The Symbology of Secret Sects, The Art of the Illuminati and The Lost Language of Ideograms are some books written by him. There are many facts of history, mathematics and science that are intriguing as well. The whole story plot is interesting, fast paced to race against the opponents to get the goal of the whole story. What is the Holy Grail? The fun and fast ride will make you stuck with the whole progress until the end of the journey. It is probably one of the best mysteries I had read and uncover many things that made me think twice of the knowledge I have now on certain issues. Overall, a very addictive book to me!

Grab that book, read it and you will be very surprised by a lot of things and your reading time will be very fulfilling. If someone like me who hardly carry a book to read and require a year to finish a novel can finish this book in 3 days, there must be something interesting about this book that is worth your reading time. Enjoy!