A great read. Although some of the writing style is a little on the cheesy mystery side, this book is fun, entertaining and interesting to read. Aside from the usual subjects of plot, characters, flow (all of which were good, in my opinion), there was obviously a huge amount of research that went into this novel. Dan Brown has created a fictional mini-introduction to Grail Lore that is both extremely readable and also very eye-opening. In addition, I now want to see many of these places for myself (although some I wanted to see well before I read the book). Very good. I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

I'm creating a bookring with this book.

Participants:
Luz-de-Luna (Greece) *RECEIVED - Nov.26/04* *RELEASED - Dec.1/04*
milly1401 (UK) *RECEIVED - Dec.12/04* *RELEASED - Dec.19/04*
biffin44 (UK) *RECEIVED - Jan.1/05* *RELEASED - Jan.7/05*
Charlaya (Bavaria) *RECEIVED - Jan.13/05* *RELEASED - Jan.31/05*
sekach00 (USA) *RECEIVED - Mar.25/05* *RELEASED - Apr.8/05*
CheriePie (USA) *RECEIVED - Apr.12/05* *RELEASED - Apr.29/05*
GrannyAnn (USA) *RECEIVED - May6/05* *RELEASED - May25/05*

Thank you! I'm really looking forward to reading this. I'll try not to keep it longer than I'm supposed to :-)

Released on Wednesday, December 01, 2004 at about 5:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at by mail in To the next participant, A Bookring Controlled Releases.

RELEASE NOTES:

Oh My God... That book was absolutely amazing!! Mailing it to [milly1401]. Enjoy!

Came to me in an international bookring - am working through it and enjoying it a lot!!!

enjoyed this a lot - some very interesting theories and a few good twists and turns.maybe the ending just a little unsatisfactory?
am posting on to next in chain

received yesterday morning, thankyou very much... need to finish another book then will start it straight away
xxx

i did enjoy this one, a bit of a page-turner, very difficult to put down!

will post it on to Charlaya in my lunch break today
xxx

Has been in the mail today! :-)

I'm looking forward to reading it! But I promised two other books that I would finish them, before starting a new one again! ;-)

First of all I'm sorry that it took me longer than I expected to finish the book. My life is a little upside down at the moment, so I hadn't had too much time for reading.

I'm going to send it on today. :-)

Sorry, the following is going to be a bad review, so if you haven't read it yet and I don't want to spoil it for you, so please read this afterwards. ;)

I didn't enjoy "The Da Vinci Code" very much though. I expected more of it. I found it more predictable than intriguing.
The protagonists tend ponder two pages over a solution that is obvious, at least so it seems.
On the other hand the short chapters (probably the average chapter lenght was about two or three pages) made it hard to read and concentrate on.
Then the protagonists have the quirk to get lost in memories and are then brought back to reality all the time. Making a movie of that scenes will surely provide a running gag.

Quite a lot of the told "secret" information about the grail and the Knights Templar you hear in school, provided that you have an enthusiastic teacher, but still.
For the writing style, I know I can't judge, not being a native speaker, it appeared to be from some teenager wanting to write a crime-novel. Especially when the scenes got tense.
In short it seemed so simple and begging for attention.

I got this book a few days ago from an international book ring!!! I loved the book! It really makes me want to research the origins of Christianity! It is a quick and great read!

mailing to Cheriepie today!!! thanks for the wonderful oppurtunity to read this great book! I loved every second of it!!!!

Received in the mail today. I've got a few rings/rays to finish up before I can get to it, but it shouldn't be too long.

Wow, this was a fantastic book! I went into it not knowing what to expect. Despite the good reviews I'd heard about it, I thought it would have a strong pro-Christian slant, and thus wouldn't be the right book for me. However, the premise of the story strongly disputed the entire basis of modern Christianity--which meshed quite nicely with my own way of thinking. As a Goddess worshiper, I already knew and understood a lot of the stuff about the Goddess that was discussed, and the stuff that was newer to me was how it tied in to Christianity. Most likely, I was coming from the opposite side of the coin as so many other readers, to whom the Goddess-aspect is the newer concept rather than the more familiar. Nevertheless, I can honestly say that even from the standpoint of a practicing Pagan and Wiccan, the story held my interest right up until the very end, and I had no qualms with the way the author handled the feminine divinity at all.

The entire book, with the exception of the epilogue, takes place within the course of a single day. Thinking back on that, I found it amazing that I didn't find the story to lag in any way, and that the author could spread an entire 24 hour period over 454 pages. Unlike a previous reviewer who claimed that the short chapters made it harder to read, I found just the opposite to be the case. I was continually saying to myself, "I can get in just one more short chapter before bed." Which in turn made it impossible to put down. :) And the flashbacks to past memories... I didn't find too excessive at all. Perhaps that opinion is tempered somewhat by the book I read right before this one, Minion by L. A. Banks, in which the excessive rambling of the characters' long thought processes was driving me crazy. But I digress...

I told my partner that he simply MUST read this book, so I've put it on reserve at our local library for him. He usually doesn't read all that much, but with all the hype surrounding this book because of the film and all, and the fact that I'm sure the book was better than the movie as is usually the case, I'm hoping I can get him to read it within the allotted time once it's available to us. It's the kind of book I want everyone I know to read. If they haven't already... I'm interested in hearing what some of my other Pagan friends have to say about it too, particularly with regards to the Goddess aspect.

Oh, and in case other readers weren't aware, you can go to the Secrets section Dan Brown's web site to see pictures of all the historical sites described in the book. Here's the direct URL: http://www.danbrown.com/secrets/davinci_code/gallery.html

Anyway, this will be sent off to GrannyAnn just as soon as I get her address, which I only just requested Friday afternoon. I really didn't think I'd get through it as quickly as I did. Mucho thanks to amambaw for sharing! :*

Packaged up today and going out in tomorrow's mail (Friday, April 29) to GrannyAnn via Media Mail.

It's here!! I'm looking forward to reading this. I have one bookring that I'm almost finished, then it's on to the code.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The information on Grail lore and the secret societies was very interesting. This book really moves!! I liked the short chapters. I think it keeps you reading, "I can read just one more". The plot had twists and turns galore. A lot happened in one day! Thanks for starting the bookring for this one,amambaw, I'm mailing it back to you tomorrow.

Hey all!

I believe that "The DaVinci Code" has made it safely back to my home in Canada. I, however, have not yet, so I can't be 100% sure. I called home this week, and my mom said I had a few books waiting for me. I pretty sure this is one of them, so I thought I'd write and let GrannyAnn know that it is safe.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this ring! I'm planning on releasing this one on Canada Day as part of a mass release. It will be neat for whoever picks it up... If they journal it, they'll get to see where it has been!

Cheers! Amanda

Hey Everyone,

This little book is now in the wild. I released it for my Canada Day release challenge. It was released at Orchard Park Mall in Kelowna!

RELEASE NOTES:

On a bench outside of Chapters, inside the mall.