stephengrant

I'm new but I'll give it a go... Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Cod Adventures from the Prior of Sion's fishing holidays Martin Handford - Whore's Wally Classic spot-the-idiot-pimp puzzlebook J R R Tolkein - The Lord of the Rungs Mythical Fantasy set in a world made entirely of ladders Frederick Forsyth - The Forth Protocol Midlothian Council Handbook on handling Edinburgh-based sea traffic J K Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stoned Harry discusses Freud for 6 hours while giggling over 3 packs of Chocolate hob-nobs and a few autobiogs... Victoria Beckham

Any fans? Was a big reader many years back; it's hard going, but in true Tolkein style the quality and depth of the world he paints far outweighs the clumsiness of the writing. Recommend 'At the Mountains of Madness' as a starting point if you want a flavour to the range of his writing, or 'The case of Charles Dexter Ward' if you want a fast-track to his better work (IMHO).

Sort of, but how else could it have ended? The revelation and the shock was in the subject matter, not in the conclusion. It's not the world's best ending, but its hard to think how it could have ended better. I thought the subtleties of the love interest that had been bubbling under throughout were nicely concluded without being too forced. Considering Dan Brown's reportage style of writing, I was shuddering to imagine there might have been a love scene later on, described using his usual direct and hollow prose. "There was an arousal. It was gradual." etc etc.

I've been lurking on these forums since December 2004 and it's time to come clean. I like the DVC. I thought it was a great piece of entertaining literature. Go ahead, flame away, I'll go back into hiding for the next 7 months!!! Stephen