frommer's meets hudson hawk

The Guy Who Reviewed the 'Darwin' Exhibit Presents a Book Review

I just read a fascinating book that I think you're going to be hearing a lot about. It's called The Davinci Code and it's about a scavenger hunt for the Holy Grail. Now I know what you're thinking -- books are for nerds and gays. That's what I used to think. In the past, when people would ask me "What good are books for?" I'd respond "Not much, unless you're backpacking through Europe and need to know where stuff is. Or are trying to identify the nerds you want to beat up." BUT LET ME TELL YOU! This book reads just like a travel guide! Practically every other paragraph is filled with historical trivia and facts about sightseeing. The other parts are an exciting story. You'll hardly know you're reading a book at all, and you might not even want to beat up nerds when you're done!

How did I end up reading it? Well, I was laid up for a week with an infection that I won't discuss here, but let's just say it had to do with Spring Break, tequila, and gonorrhea. Anyway, I needed something to do, so I sent Gretchen to the Best Buy to get Hostel on DVD. There was some sort of mix-up that resulted in her getting kicked out of the store, so she went to Wal-Mart instead. Of course, she's still got five months before she's allowed back in the electronics department there, so she had to buy me a book instead. I'm sure glad she did!

The main character in the book is Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor. Don't worry -- this isn't one of those annoying stories where the author wastes space with a lot of insignificant details about the character's personality and life story. In fact, the only character trait Langdon has is a Mickey Mouse wristwatch that he wears. Langdon teaches at Harvard, which is great, because sometimes in the book he has flashbacks to lectures he gave at Harvard, so it's like getting a free Harvard education for the price of the book ($7.99 in paperback).

The most surprising thing about this book is that it teaches you while you read it. For instance, did you know that the church has been accused of various kinds of misconduct over the years? It's true. Or that the Mona Lisa is a famous painting in the Louvre? It's true, too. Also, all albinos are all pathologically evil people.

The author, Dan Brown, uses some neat and original tricks to keep the story flowing. One example is when he makes you think one character is the villain, when he's actually a good guy, while the guy who is actually the villain seems like he is a good guy, and you don't suspect him because he's crippled. I'm not sure if he was actually crippled, or just faking it, because they say he was involved with polo when he was a child, and I don't think someone could play a sport like that if their legs didn't work. How would he get on the horse? Another cool thing is that at the end of each chapter, there's an unanswered question and you have to read the next chapter to find out what happens next.

The first thing I thought when Gretchen brought the book home was: Great! Here's a chick book full of romantic crap like those Oprah books she's always reading (you can tell from the titles they're going to be girly: Night, The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Light In August, etc). But there's no sappy romance at all in The Davinci Code even though the other main character is a girl named Sophie. There's one kiss with her at the end, but I've done a lot more than that with girls I don't care about, so it probably doesn't mean anything. Plus, she's Jesus' great granddaughter, so I don't think she's even allowed to have sex.

In conclusion, you should check out this book. I hear they're making a movie of it, but you should try to read it first, so you get the full experience. There's no way they'll be able to get all the book's adjectives, adverbs, and exclamation points up there on the screen.