A different kind of 'code'

I am not someone who reads a lot of novels, in fact, I wonder if I have even ever read one. But these vacations have given me a lot of free time, and some friends of mine told me what a good read 'The Da Vinci Code' was. I decided to give it a try.

I started reading, and I must admit, I kept the book down (rather, closed 'xpdf') only after I finished it. Took a good eight hours or so. The book had enough to keep me hooked to it all through the night.

But frankly, I was a bit disappointed. The book, or rather the plot, promises that there are certain hidden secrets, and brings us tantalizingly close to them. But the end was a dud. The author never reveals the secret. Come on yaar, I know the book is fiction (at least most of it), give me at least one more piece of fiction that I could believe was a secret worth keeping for millennia! If there was a secret plot for the reader to uncover, I am sorry, I missed it. There was a feeling that I had been taken for a ride. A ride that lasted a good eight hours.

In the middle though, I had taken a break, and searched Google for more information about the book. I reached the author's official web-site, and in one of the FAQs, the author said the story would be continued in the next book. Maybe that is the reason behind the secrets not being revealed, the author wants to guarantee that his next book will sell at least as much as this one. And this one sold quite a lot, I hear.

Frankly, I like Tanenbaum better. At least, he doesn't keep his secrets for long ;)