Sorry to hear about your affliction Thin G., Try to take Luten and Bilberry supplements, may help to delay the eyes damage.
Take care,
Kismet

Powell--thanks for the chuckle!

His latest new book "The Solomon Key" is not out yet, good alternatives acccording to CNN are Jon Fasman's "The Geographer", a suspense novel featuring a 12th Century Spanish-Muslim philosopher, James Rollins' "Map of Bones" also 12th Century search for holy relics, and Elizabeth Kostova's "The Historian," which follows a young woman's quest for the historical Dracula. I have not read any of these books, these are recommendations on a CNN article.

"simple fun" pretty much describes the dan brown books, poorly written as they are. if the aim is to read fiction for set in Paris and Rome there are far better choices.

......Iain Pears has written a series
of mysteries featuring an English Art
Historian and a member of the Italian
'Art Police'. All the titles include
names of famous artists. Very enjoyable
books and, hmmm, well-written. <g>

Although I am far from being an intellectual, I must concur with those
brave souls publically declaring Brown's
glaring faults as a writer of fiction.
His writing put me in mind of Michner's
attempts at characterization - cardboard
cutouts on a flat background. JMHO, of course!

Oh good, others who though DaVinci code was crap. I though A&D was an entertaining read - obviously written w/ an eye towards selling it as a movie. I'm waiting for Powell's Michaelangelo code which is sure to zoom to the top of the charts! Thanks for making me smile.

I always enjoy coming back to this forum so I can learn what I'm supposed to believe and think. Thank God all critics agree on what's best for the slobbering Masses.

And since we're on the internet and none of you are gonna know what's true and what isn't, I attended Eton, Oxford, the Sorbonne, Heidelberg, Sandhurst, Harvard, MIT, Cal Poly and the University of Phoenix on-line. And did my post-graduate work at Hamburger U.

DVC and A&D (and, to a lesser extent, John Grisham's "The Broker") all follow the same general storyline. I happened to like DVC, was generally okay with A&D, and bored by Broker. The literary qualities of the books can be debated (they were all fun but copies of each other), but since you asked the question in a Fodor's forum, I'll address the travel aspects of them

All three of these books are good resources for looking for sights to see in London, Paris, Rome, and Bologna. I will be returning to Rome this summer (the Three Coins in Trevi Fountain trick worked again! :-) ), staying in a hotel near Piazza Barberini, and I fully plan on checking out the the churches mentioned in A&D. In fact, for the first time, I actually WANT to SEE churches while on vacation in Italy! And it's because of A&D.

A&D is supposed to be a prequel to DVC, so it wouldn't hurt to read the books in that order, but it's definitely not necessary. I read DVC 6-9 months ago and just finished A&D this weekend and did not feel lost or out-of-sequence at all.

just be aware that the directions given in the paris part of the da vinci code aren't exactly correct.

The reference to Foucault's Pendulum caught my eye right away. It is one of my all time favourite books. I think Eco's writing style is fantastic. When we went to Paris 3 yrs ago I made sure that I went to the Pantheon just to see the Pendulum! A friend recently read the daVinci Code and though he liked it, he did call it Foucault's Pendulum for dummies! I borrowed daVinci from him and will give it a go when I get some time.

Call me sour, but my answer to the OP's question is 'None of them', and save your time and money for something better.

just seconding (thirding?) the foucault's pendulum recommendation. absolute genius.

having said that, i liked angels and demons and the da vinci code as well. they're just enjoyable reading. the plot is ludicrous in places, and they're not that well written, but i think they're quite entertaining, and i don't really think they pretend to be much else.

i'm amused (and slightly irritated) by the implication that you couldn't possibly enjoy these books if you have a proper education. they're just like a hollywood blockbuster in book form. harmless escapist fun. i don't always want to read something 'intellectually challenging'. it all sounds a bit like intellectual snobbery to me.

I didn't care much for A & D. Would have put it down without finishing if it had not been for the glorious setting in Rome. I enjoy a fun frivolous read (what my Mom used to call her "hair-dryer novels) as much as anyone. But, loads of factual errors which are presented in such a way that people who don't recognize the errors may well come away from the read thinking them facts IS annoying. Makes you distrust the author, so why bother with more of the same? At least, that's how I now feel about Dan Brown.