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I finished the book today. Very captivating and interesting. I look forward to talking more about this book in the days and weeks to come…
So how many of you have read the book or are just waiting until the movie comes out?
I’m glad I read it first.? I haven’t done that with a lot of books/movies.
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I always feel so accomplished if I can read the book before the movie comes out. Doesn’t usually happen but I like to compare what I imagined in my head and what is put on the screen
Often I get frustrated with movie versions of books because they mess up the story but as I was reading Da Vinci, I kept thinking “this will be so much better on the screen.” I think that the book would have benefited from a heavier hand from the editor, especiailly at the beginning. The movie should be able to cut out some of the unnecessary exposition and get to the chase.
One strange thing about hearing so much about the movie — as I was reading the book I was picturing Tom Hanks as Langdon in my head :) So in some ways I feel like I’ve already seen the film.
congrats on finishing the book, rob.
looking forward to the movie… 38 days to go!
Ha! Claire, I was thinking the same thing about Tom Hanks!
Really? While I was reading the book I knew that Tom Hanks was playing Robert but I just couldn’t picture him. He wasn’t the Robert in my head. After I see the movie I proably won’t be able to picture anyone else but Tom as Robert
I agree Leah, for me Tom is a stretch for Robert. I just hope Tom is up to it. If he is I’ll have more respect for him.
I had tried to read the book before but gave up when I hit a part that I thought was particularly stupid. However, figuring that if I’m going to participate in a discussion of the book I shuld actually read it, I’ve just recently started to read it again.
Hello everyone. I’ve read the book and I’m looking forward to the movie. I can’t say that I believe each and everything that has been uncovered. ( Not with Dan Brown’s book but with holy blood holy grail, and Lawrence Gardners book “The magdalene legacy”) but I do think that some aspects of Mary Magdalene were kept from the public. I actually found a small site that sells Magdalene or the davinci code “bling” and I have to admit I actually bought a cap from them. I think I’ll wear mine out and about to see if anyone can catch it. Here is the address in case anyone else is interested. http://www.cafepress.com/magdalene
I’m so glad I found another forum that has some interesting conversation about this. So far I’ve started to go beyound just Dan Brown’s book, and when I decided to do that, it opened the whole story up. Lots of information and I highly recommend “The Magdalene Legacy” It’s easy to read and understand and it compiles all of Gardners books.
I haven’t finished the book yet. Actually the first chapter was really boring for me, but I kept reading after visiting some posts on a forum. I was surprised to see the impact of the book in these people, to the point that some of them were doubting their “little” faith, as one of those wrote. So my curiosity is more about where fiction and historical reability meet in this book. I would also say that as I was reading yesterday, it didn’t make sense all these secrets in our century where people are enjoying the freedom of speech as never before!! Anyway, I am eager to read the Christian respond about this. Unfortunately most of the people would embrace Dan Brown’s “revelations” to the point of truths of life, because they would not volunteerly search about the realibility of the Bible, or anything about Christianity. So anything against God and religious fits to them better than seeking the truth.
Gary, those were my thoughts too.
Ann, so glad you will be visiting us regularly. That website you linked to is nuts! But I got a chuckle out of it.
Rea, glad you came by also. I’m with you when you say how suprised you are to see how this book is impacting people, especially those of faith. Could you explain what you mean about searching about Brown’s “revelations” and the Bible? I got a little confused by what you meant. Sorry!
I haven’t read the book and I don’t think I want to. But in regards to learning about Mary Magdalene, Liz Curtis Higgs, a Christian author, wrote a really good book a while back called “Mad Mary” that talks about how Mary has been stereotyped all these years for nothing. She quotes a lot of scripture on who the Bible says Mary really was (it may surprise you!). Amazon.com has some info on it, if you’re intersted.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578566967/002-8449214-3019205?v=glance&n=283155
Rob,
thanks for welcoming me here. Actually English is not my native language, probably this is why you were a little confused by my post:)
Anyway I hope I can express what I meant. I’ve seen that a lot of “The Da Vinci Code”’s readers have never been exposed before to materials about the Bible, they might even never read the Bible before. And I am thinking more about those who because of missunderstandings or negative impressions (experiences) about Christianity will purposefully neglect, avoid and even attack anything that has to do with the Bible or even God. So when they are presented with such a book as The Da Vinci Code, it fits them to find more reasons about their attitude toward Christ. They embrace Dan Brown’s “theories” or as I called them “revelations” as truths of life, without doubting about Dan’s realibility. For example in one of the forums, a young lady was caught in the “fact” that Constantin the Great wrote the Bible!! I haven’t reached to that part of the book yet. but when I read her post, the first question that came to my mind was ” has she ever been interested to know about how the Bible was written? Has she ever read anything about the Bible? Or even does she want to know about the Bible? Why?” Otherwise, she would not be scandalised. And I am affraid that she would not do it and will continue to live her life with Dan Brown’s theories.
So this has been my question as I am reading the book. Dan opens a door to information that I’ve not known before, but how reliable is this information?!
I am really enjoying everyone’s posts and questions! I read the book before I even knew very much about the movie(because my adult kids had all read it so I just had to find out what the buzz was all about). But tonight while watching the Amazing Race I saw the first commercial for the movie and there was Tom Hanks in living color. Will be very interested to see how true the movie will be to the book!
Rea, I agree with you totally. That’s why we have this blog here…to help facilitate discussion about Dan Brown’s book, the church, the Bible, and Jesus. You’re totally correct about Mr. Brown opening “a door to information” that causes a lot of questions as to what’s true and what’s not. Amazingly, this NOVEL has a lot of stuff in it that just isn’t true…not just topics or details related to spirituality.
Perspective! It’s a novel meant to make money. He’s doing quite well with that goal.
Finding reliable information such as what you seek…well, stay here. We plan to continue facilitating conversations about the reliability of this type of stuff.
BTW, Rea, are you in Amsterdam?
I knew I?d want to see the movie next month, so figured I should read the book first. I started it last Monday, but just last night got to the points of controversy. Thanks for providing the resources you have. I?ve not even started to try to dig into them yet. But look forward to it.
Actually, when the book was in it?s prime of popularity. Ben Witherington ( http://www.benwitherington.com/ and http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/) spoke at my church about the book and it?s claims. But having not read the book, I was a bit clueless.
Rob, I’m in Kosovo.
I’m reading the book right now, because I wanted to read it before the movie came out. I think that it will translate very well to the screen in some ways (will probably make a better movie than it does a novel, actually), but it will be hard for the movie to provide all the information into church and art history that written medium allows Brown to provide.
I’m finding the art history more interesting than anything else – I’ve been through my period of questionning Church teaching and doctrines and made up my mind on it. It’s interesting to hear other ideas, but I honestly think that people ultimately seek out the stuff that they *want* to hear when it comes to justifying their faith or lack of it. It’s too much for my feeble brain to sort out, who’s right and who’s wrong (and I have tried)- Jesus said that we should approach the world with love and compassion, that seems pretty much agreed on, and I’m cool with trying to live my life like that.
Anyway, Davinci Code. Not a particularly well-written novel – certainly doesn’t belong in the canon of great literature. Interesting ideas, sparked some cuiosity about Davinci (for me). I don’t see Tom Hanks as Landon, though.
Sarah, I’m glad you decided to come here and comment. I know what you mean…there’s a lot out there about Jesus and what’s true, what’s not…it is mind blowing! I hope you’ll continue to visit this site as we work through some of these thoughts with others. Here’s one site that I have found interesting in discerning fact from fiction.
Interesting comment about the Art History Sarah. I have family members that actually read the book while travelling in Europe, specifically in Rome and Paris. They found aspects of the book fascinating from that perspective! They even checked out The Louvre!
I think if there’s one thing that DVC has done is raised an interest in history and art. That’s good! Seek the truths and view the art. It’s good! There is a truth. Thanks for discussing what that truth is.
[...] First up was The Da Vinci Code. You probably know I’ve read the book and have been working a lot on a blog to discuss the book/movie. I can honestly say that the movie was a let-down for me. I much preferred the book. I’ve never really read the book before seeing the movie so that was new for me. [...]