| Night out #387 |
[14 Jul 2004|12:06pm] |
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mood |
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The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown
Much hyped... Way too much hyped...!
Usually I tend not to read books that are going through a 'popular' phase... I wait for all the sales publicity and general hullabaloo to die away... Often I pick up a book only months or years after all the talk has blown away... But last evening I was desperate... Desperate to get my hands on some book, any book... So right after work I drove down to Crossword wiht the intention of buying buying Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions... The shop has never, ever kept a copy of that book on sale or in stock but I'm a die-hard optimist... But I digress...
So I walk in and there's a whole rack full of DVCs staring out at me... America's new No.1 bestseller and all that winklebottom... I still have no idea why I broke the fundamental tennet of book-buying and shelled out the requisite 'Rs.255 only' to be a somewhat startled-at-his-own-behaviour owner of a spanking new copy of the book...
Don't get me wrong though... The book was not all bad... In fact, I stayed up the whole night reading it so, obviously, it's a compelling book... One of those unputdownables...! Ten words through the book I knew I was going to be up all night trying to finish it in one sitting...
The facts seem very well researched and certainly sound authentic to my ears... Of course I have known to be wrong on occassion...
The language is engaging for the most part... Sometimes receding into the banal, but engaging overall...
The book moves at a fair pace and the story never seems to drag at any point...
And, of course, all the interesting trivia about the occult and pagan religions... And a right proper treasure hunt...
Those are the redeeming features of the book... The ones that made me stay up all night...
On the flip side, the story often reaches so far into the realm of the fantastic that it's difficult to stay convinced... Unless you're a conspiracy theorist yourself, of course... And the thing that really killed it for me was the climax... Or rather the lack of one... The last couple of chapters are probably the meekest in the book, while, in fact, the way the book was building up they should have been the most explosive...
In retrospect, I'm happy I only paid 255... Any more and I'd probably be ruing my decision...
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| Your turn... |
[14 Jul 2004|02:17pm] |
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mood |
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Blatantly filched from Sarika
If I were a book, I would be written by: Douglas Adams
If I were a food, I would be: Cheesecake
If I were a place, I would be: Bombay
If I were a taste, I would be: Bittersweet
If I were a scent, I would be: Hugo
If I were a word, I would be: Lackadaisical
If I were a body part I would be: Eyes
If I were a facial expression I would be: Smirk
If I were a subject in school I would be: Literature
If I were a cartoon character I would be: Stupendous Man ;)
If I were a shape I would be: Oval
If I were a number I would be: 1
If I were an item of clothing, I would be: Pyjamas
If I were a piece of jewelry, I would be: An unadorned platinum wedding band
If I were a work of art I would be: Van Gogh's Starry Night
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| For me this week has been about... |
[14 Jul 2004|09:41pm] |
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mood |
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 calm |
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music |
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White Flag - Dido |
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...enlightening conversation with oft-seen-but-never-spoken-to people over a pizzas-and-coke lunch
...enlightening conversation with strangers over a steak dinner
...constantly meeting new people and searching for connections
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