Nice Work... of Fiction

Okay, so I stayed up too late last night and got too little done today in order to finish The DaVinci Code.

I liked it. It's sort of intellectual fantasy meets James Bond. It had the same weakness I saw in Angels and Demons (read that one last year, also from my dad, in prep for reading DVC), primarily that waaay too much happens in way too infinitesimally short a period of time.

Beyond that? Like I said, an enojyable bit of fiction. Honestly I don't see what the fuss was about. Many of the sources alluded to are real; not all, but if people really want to get upset, go check out the books in the bibliography first THEN form an opinion one way or another, or, better still, look it up from scratch for yourself! It's ~fiction~ not the manifesto of a new world order for goodness sake!

I try, ever so hard, to stay out of these things but now that I've read the book... Why do people get so upset about books that cast large religious institutions in the role of villain, or at least deceiver, never seem to get upset about all the books that are innacurate in ways that don't attack the church? Why is DaVinci Code bad but The Omen okay?

Ok, I'll stop now. I just don't understand how people get so bent ouf of shape about a novel; it's just a book! If you want to get upset about something ~real~ check out pictures of Mississippi or rural Louisiana after Katrina... SIX MONTHS after Katrina. That's something to be upset about.

Da da da da Da Vinci

Ok. I'm finally doing it. I've been avoiding The DaVinci Code like the plague just because I refuse to read a book based on buzz alone, especially religious controversy buzz.

Til now. I have a friend who is one of those readers publishers dream of touching, the kind that don't read a lot and read very little fiction. And she loved TDVC, so now I gotta try it. I have had it on my shelf (loaner from my dad) for almost a year--he may want it back so I guess I should read the thing.

I'll let you know in a few days if it was worth my time (Nothing is worth that kind of hype, nothing).

Return from the Abyss

Two days after my last post my computer mysteriously failed :-(

It stayed down until Friday of last week. Yep, TWELVE DAYS spent accessing the web from the library or a friend's house.

Technically I imagine it's still down. I don't care, I got a shiny NEW puter that weights half what the old one did (I use a notebook). Didn't really need the expense, who does? But now I'm operational once more. Except my printer has to be re-loaded every time I un-dock, but I can live with that--for now.

Number of projects delayed: 3
Number of deadlines missed: 1
Number of jobs I ate the fee on to make up for the missed deadline: 1
Number of days spent trying to convince tech support I was not a moron: 9

An unsatisfctory couple weeks and now I'm working all kinds of craziness to try to get those three projects caught up, and I have to beg the person I missed a deadline on to throw me some more stuff now that I'm back online :-S Ain't technology grand?