A long, sunny holiday weekend was well misspent. No broadband connectivity, so no temptation to keep up with the online world. Because my current non-fiction read is lengthy, I took a one-day breather with The Da Vinci Code. Yes, I’m a bit late to this mega-best-selling party. The pages turned, and I got what I wanted. Felt like Umberto Eco dumbed down, which is both a wonderful thing and a (mild) disappointment. Historical mysteries are grand, especially with the scavenger hunt aspect thrown in. But where Eco built up the possibilities, and wove a tale that bound me and then cast me aside as it continued to ever-more-ethereal diversions, Dan Brown didn’t lose his story. Everything gets tidied up, perhaps a bit too smoothly. But for a summer beach read, spot on. Eco taunted me with Foucault’s Pendulum because the first third or so was one of the best stories I’ve ever read. Yet, somewhere in the middle, the story dropped from view so Eco could deliver magisterial asides. These snippets are interesting, as long as they are snippets. But they took over the tale in that novel. Anyway, next time I have a few hours to kill, I won’t mind picking up Dan Brown once again, even if he doesn’t live up to the standard set here.