I’ve just finished reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I first discovered Dan’s work when The Da Vinci Code came out a few years ago. I enjoyed it and went on to read his other novels. I find they all fit a pretty standard formula but that’s fine.
His writing style appeals to me and draws me into his books. He keeps the chapters short and that keeps me reading. When I feel some time pressure I tend to look ahead and see how long the next chapter is. If it’s 20 pages for example I might decide to stop reading for the time being and come back to the book later. Dan’s chapters can often be just 2 pages so I forge ahead and might find that I’ve read 20 2 page chapters where I would have not attempted 1 20 page chapter.
Did I enjoy The Lost Symbol? Yes and I recommend it.
What compelling reading have you done lately?
Retired In Toronto 
I can enjoy Dan Brown’s books if I read them as fiction. They’re page turners, but scholars haven’t been very flattering to Mr. Brown. He likely dismisses the critics with a wave of his hand, from his mansion window 🙂
I bought it, just have not had chance to read it yet…
If you like short chapters, you should read Pride and Prejudice. What most don’t expect is, it’s very funny. It’s in my top 5 books.
The best book I’ve ever read was The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. I can’t proselytize enough about it. It’s a masterpiece; an opus. It is weighty at c. 600 pages, but I kid you not – you will thank me when you’re done.
Hmm. I thought I wrote a fairly wordy posting here that recommended The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (not to be confused by other books of the same name) but my posting seems to have got lost. Hugely original, hugely funny in my opinion, happens to take some good swipes at the outsourcing biz in Bangalore.
That led me to mention that a retired IBMer named Joan Kendall wrote a murder mystery called Outsourced. Regardless of whether you want to read the book, her blog posting about its genesis is pretty interesting: http://greater-than-riches-mysteries.blogspot.com/
I’m glad to see someone else loved Kavalier and Clay because I did, too. However I gave it to two people who weren’t that wowed so … different strokes I guess.
My desert island book is History of Love, by Nicole Krauss. I read it twice, back to back, which I haven’t done since my Nancy Drew days. So far I think I have recommended it to 4 or 5 people who loved it as much as I did. I hope you read it.