DumbFunnery

Recently I read my first Dan Brown book. The book I read was Inferno, which is one of the Robert Langdon books (the same main character in Angels and Demons and the Da Vinci Code).

Apparently Dan Brown’s character Robert Langdon is known for a few things:

• Stirring up controversy with “facts” that are included in the books
• A page-turning action story
• Annoying amounts of descriptions of buildings and history in the middle of scenes where it makes no sense (which is basically the entirety of the book because the story is fast-paced but the narration is not)

Here is a paragraph from the book (this could be considered a spoiler so … feel free to skip this):

Langdon hurried toward them, although as an architecture enthusiast, he found it almost unthinkable to rush a trip along the Grand Canal. Few Venetian experiences were more pleasurable than boarding vaporetto no. 1 – the city’s primary open-air water bus – preferably at night, and sitting up front in the open air as the floodlit cathedrals and palaces drifted past.

Meanwhile someone is chasing him with a gun or he’s on fire or whatever, something is happening that makes this kind of reminiscing normally associated with coffee and lazy days slightly out of place.

This book is an example of something enjoyable that is wrapped a coating of annoying. I remember a quote from The Office where Michael Scott has an interesting story for once and Pam says that Michael realizes this and is taking even longer to tell the story because he knows he has everyone’s attention.

To me, that is Dan Brown.