2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Dan Brown's book, The Lost Symbol.


***Please remember to mark spoilers.***

Participants:
Caro, Cassandra, Duaa, Brianna, Kadijah Michelle, Missy, Maria, Gina, Stormie

Suggested break down of reading so that you can check in and let us know how you're going. The following breakdown is purely a suggestion and is therefore not set in stone.

Rather than putting dates for each section I've done it so that it takes into account that not everybody will necessarily have the book at the same time.

Week 1: 156 pages
Week 2: 156 pages
Week 3: 156 pages
Week 4: 156 pages

I've added you Brianna

Read it awhile ago. Really good book.

I wold like in please. I just got this book, and what a great excuse to start it! The only thing I can't promise is not finishing it in 2 days.

I've added you Kadijah Michelle.

I'll hop in on this one too.

I would like to join.

Awesome! Glad to see so many people are interested in this one. :)

Missy and Maria I've added you both. Good to see so many people joining this read. Enjoy.

I will start on Monday and following Zara´s suggestion and my edition of the book I will try to break it like this
First week: until chapter 38
Second week: until chapter 83
Third week: until chapter 126
Last week: The rest of the book.

Caro wrote: "I will start on Monday and following Zara´s suggestion and my edition of the book I will try to break it like this
First week: until chapter 38
Second week: until chapter 83
Third week: until cha..."

Sounds good Caro. Enjoy.

I'm down with the chapter idea.

Gina I've added you. You can still join in.

Brianna wrote: "This is the second time I've read this, but it's been since 2011 so I'm a bit fuzzy on what happens.
So far I'm at chapter 60 and really liking it! It feels like there is a bit of a formula Dan Bro..."

Congratulations Brianna! You are reading it pretty fast. I will start tomorrow and hopefully will catch with you very soon. I had read the other two books of Dan Brown with Robert Langdon as the main protagonist and I have been reading it quite fast. I agree that he has certain formula that make you keep going in his books. Hopefully in my next post I will be able to make some comments about mi views of the book.

I'm through chapter 29 now. I'm looking forward to the weekend so I can get some serious reading in. This week has been crazy with midterms and a career fair.

So far, I have mixed feelings about this book. It's a page turner, but it also feels like nothing has really happened. They spent a huge amount of time standing around in the old capitol building, not really doing anything. I like Katherine as a character.

Starting Chapter 35...so far I agree with Cao and Brianna. This book seems to be following a formula, and so I feel as though I'm missing some of the excitement I had from the first two Robert Langdon books. That being said it is a page turner (Cassandra, it's about to pick up quick), and I will probably finish it this weekend. I placed note cards at the end of each chapter group so I can make notes and not post any spoilers. To discuss what has happened so far...I love DC, and I live really close, so I get to go a lot. I have so much to look for the next time I'm at the capital. There is a lot of explaining, but as a history buff, I'm finding the facts as interesting as the story. There is one problem i'm having. This book is during NFL playoffs, but no on is complaining about the cold...that's not normal DC behavior, and believe me, it's cold there in January!

Oh wow, that's cool that you live near D.C. and can relate to some of the places. I've never been to D.C. before, but I really want to go and explore.

I enjoy history as well, but I'm pretty skeptical of Dan Brown. He takes real places/things and premises I agree with and then quickly runs off into dreamland with them, so I'm never quite sure where fact ends and fiction begins. I know that's part of the draw of the Langdon books.

I'm also a little skeptical of this book in particular, because my dad is a Mason (3rd degree, not 33rd!). Langdon tries to dispel some myths about the Masons, which I appreciate. But then there's this huge secret plot that involves the Masons of the highest degree, which only reinforces the idea that the Masons secretly control the world. The Masons I know can't even take care of their own Lodge building, let alone guard these incredible secrets. :P

Ok so I manage to finish in the chapter that I was planning for the week. So so far I guess that we all can agree that Dan Brown has this special formula that let you read it pretty fast, several chapters are fast and it has interesting descriptions.

So far I agree with the critics is amazing that in a book that is to be set in January we do not see Mal'akh feeling any cold while he is outside his car, we do not listen any complain of the wind (I had never been in DC but I have a friend that used to live there and he complain a lot about it.)

But this is the world of Dan Brown. I understand why Cassandra is disappointed about the way that the Massons are describe, but that is say in almost all his books. That is why I like to take them as almost pure fiction and never fully believe the notes that he says that all the things he says about all the organisations and places are real, as well as the way they work.... Nah... not really.

I still remember when I read The Da Vinci Code I was so immerse in the book that a friend ask me if she can borrow it. She gave it to me 3 days later saying that the things the author wrote are a profanity. I most say, she is a Cristian, from the very tough line. I try to explain to her that the book is not real, that it use myths to create an alternate world to justify what happen... I fail she still watch the book as something terrible. For me is just a matter of perspective and how you take the books.

I agree with Brianna that the good thing of Brown is that it make you want to go to the places that he describe. I remember when I visit Vatican City. I could not help but think in Angels and Demons... What can you do?

In his defence his wife study Art History. He learn a lot about it and knows how to describe it. I lie how the story is going on and I do hope to find more about the characters, specially Sato.... Really want to see in which side she is playing. This week I may have more time so hopefully I will manage to finish, if not at least to make more progress than what I did this week.

Yeah, I'm definitely not offended by anything Dan Brown writes. It is fiction and myth, and I enjoy mythology. I actually wish Dan Brown would write a book about Egypt. I used to want to be an Egyptologist when I was a kid.

I didn't like this one as much as the other two Langdon books. For me, I like Angels & Demons the best and The Da Vinci Code next. I also like his non-Langdon books better than this one. It was still an entertaining book, though.

I would like to join this discussion, if I could. I brought the book when it was released, but was thinking of reading again. :)

Definitely! We're glad to have you join us. :)

Ok, I finished it. I have my notes ready and real quick *spoiler* alert...Brown finally mentions the cold!

Brown talks about the cold? I am getting exited!!! Great spoiler.... To be honest I hope this weekend i manage to finish the book. This week I have been really busy at work and kind of sick... The winter this year really came to Poland.... But is always a nice excuse to not come out of the house and stay in the couch with a cup of tea and a nice book....

Ok I am in chapter 62. For sure I will finish on the weekend... Some views about the book that does not really include spoilers... I read about the cold!!! Finally Dan Brown talks about it.
So far I like the story. I still wonder what is the real purpose of Sato... How much does she knows about everything.... The more I read the more disappointed I am about Peter character. Maybe later on I change my opinion but so far I found him full of holes in himself.
I did not like the story of Mal'akh. I found his past without much sense and his search for the ultimate secret very force to the story. His characters in the other books has been more interesting for me. For instance I really enjoy Leonardo Vetra and Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca in Angels and Demons they were fascinating, as well as Teabing in the Da Vinci Code, they have a better story. I know that so far I had readjust half of the book but the characters in the others books had better background. Maybe they got more interesting in the next pages, but so far I can only see that and that it seems to me since the beginning that Langdon will have a romantic story with Katherine, that probably will end for the next book because for Dan Brown seems difficult to create a continuity in Langdon relationships...

And there's never any mention of the previous girl! Although that seems to be a fairly common thing in the mystery genre.

So I finally finish the book. I give it 3 starts, I think that I prefer his other two books of Robert Langdon more than this one. Normally once that I start reading his books I will just don't stop and eat the book in a matter of hours. Not this time. I stop several times, and it was not only till the last chapters that I read it non - stop. The characters had a better development in the last chapters, but I think that this was not enough for me.

I agree. I could easily cut out 100-150 pages from this book. I think it would have made for a better read. I just got to a point where I was rolling my eyes.

Ok so I guess that most of us already finish the book. I most say that it was good to read with more people, really pushes me when I feel lazy and looking forward to all the other buddy reads that I already join for the rest of the year.
As I say before I had higher expectations for this book, as well as I guess most of us but nevertheless was a funny reading, and I agree with Kadijah, the book can have many pages less, specially at the end, the last pages, trying to explain the real meaning of the last symbol was a repetition of parts of the book that appear before and even during that chapter. Nevertheless I plan to read in the future Digital Fortress that is a stand alone book and maybe next year Inferno