Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

When I have the luxury of time, I browse the shelves of a real bricks and sticks bookstore, collect a pile of books to take a closer look at and then settle into one of the comfy chairs so kindly provided by management for me to do so and start reading. With some books I need only read a page or two, with others the first couple of chapters. "Buy" and "don't buy" piles are made, money changes hands and I feel happy and excited about the adventures in store as I drive home. *sigh* I love books... My point? If I'd never heard of Dan Brown and if The Lost Symbol had been one of those books I decided to take a closer look at, it would have gone into the "don't buy" pile. The use of "adorned" twice and "the skull cradled in his palms" three times in the 3 page prologue would have had me wincing a little and doubting the skill of both the writer and the editor. And I probably wouldn't have given it a chance. But I have heard of Brown and I read the DaVinci Code. While it didn't convince me that Brown was an amazing writer, it did convince me that he could tell an entertaining tale; one that engaged my mind and made me curious about historical events I was previously only vaguely aware of. Some repeated phrases in The Lost Symbol's prologue weren't going to keep me from seeing if this story might be similarly engaging. It is - nearly. The Lost Symbol is as fast paced as The DaVinci Code and, while the subject matter didn't strike quite the same note of interest for me, I still found it engrossing. Brown (who seems to identify quite closely with his protagonist) continues to utilize the annoying device he used repeatedly in The DaVinci Code of telling us that someone has knowledge we need but refusing to reveal it to us for pages and pages. I managed to avoid letting that spoil my enjoyment. I know very little about the Freemasons and have never previously heard of the Invisible College. Certainly, I don't have the knowledge to know how much Brown twisted history and fudged facts in The Lost Symbol. (I'm sure I'll be reading about every inaccuarcy in the next few days, though - over and over and over...) But, to be perfectly honest, I don't care. The Lost Symbol is a novel and I read it as such. For the historical events alluded to in the story that piqued my interest - and happily, there were a number of them - I can do my own research. Doing just that after reading The DaVinci Code was half the fun of that book. So, it could be argued that my enjoyment of The Lost Symbol, now that I've finished reading it, is just beginning Is The Lost Symbol great literature? Alas, most would concede that it is not. But is it an entertaining read? Why yes, yes it is.