I can’t believe how long it’s been since my last post. Where has the year gone? My excuse – if it’s worth anything at all – is that I’ve been spending my writing time on my novel. Plus, I’m pregnant and everyone knows that time goes quicker when one is pregnant.
Anyway, I just wanted to comment on the Dan Brown mania which has reared its (dare I say, ‘ugly’) head with the release of his latest novel, The Lost Symbol. Footage on the news last night showed the hardcovers being grabbed out of boxes by crazed fans before they could even get a look-in on the shelf.
I just don’t get it. Why all the hoopla? Why are Dan Brown’s stories so incredibly popular?
I was in a bookstore last week, a rare occurence lately as I’m still on sabbatical from buying books but as I’m still allowed to buy books for others I was there purchasing a book for my two-year-old son. (Really, I was, he can attest.) Perusing the new releases shelf I was delighted to find new novels from Ursula Le Guin and Iain Banks. And then I realised I couldn’t buy them and got sad. So I’ve put them on my ‘Books to Buy on 2nd January 2010′ list.
But I digress. The point I’m getting to is that: Why does Dan Brown’s new book get major media coverage and invoke reader madness whilst novels from the likes of Le Guin and Banks are lucky to get a review in the weekend paper?
I read the Da Vinci Code a few years back to find out what all the fuss was about. And having read it I was more confused than before. The story was engaging enough but nothing extraordinary and the writing was average, at best.
The only conclusion I can come to is that Dan Brown’s popularity is simply due to the controversial nature of the topic he wrote about in the Da Vinci Code. This controversy led to publicity which led to book sales which led to more publicity and on it goes so that now his name is so huge that he could write a bad limerick and publish it on toilet paper and it would sell a squillion copies.
I would love to know your thoughts. Forget global warming and economic crisis, The Great Dan Brown Mystery is a truly important issue.
Why do you think Dan Brown is so popular?
