Monday, August 14, 2006

A year on, MPs are still reading Da Vinci Code

In today's Guardian, it appears MPs are taking their time to read TDC (disclaimer - I haven't read it either) but I was surprised to see this other title - underlined below - on their reading list (I've corrected the title!):

"This year showed a trend among MPs and peers to read doom-laden non-fiction on current affairs, such as their fellow MP Michael Gove's Celsius 7/7, about the threat of Islam, or Michael Scheuer's Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror. Two other titles appealed to the deeper fears of members with uncertain electoral futures: All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye, by Christopher Brookmyre, and This Book Will Save Your Life, by AM Holmes."

See full article in The Guardian.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Maybe, trying to find an excuse for them, they feel they need to read it becuase they know a lot of their constitutents have read it, and they want to keep in touch? Just a thought ;-)

Do you follow that grammar blog? The person who runs it was banned from Comment is Free for repeatedly correcting its grammar!

Actually I have read the DVC (long story) and although it isn't the kind of book I usually read, it is not all that terrible. It is very easy-reading in the James Patterson (late, gone-off JP, not early, tense JP) style. The plot does not hang together very well but it is an easy,mindless read, quite suitable for MPs I would think. It also flatters the reader becuase the "code" is terribly easy, something like moving each character along one, so the reader thinks he/she is frightfully clever, as it seems to take the main character, a professional code breaker, ages to spot it.