Please give a writer harder to put down than Dan Brown

[nohmi2]

Originally Posted by frui

I know, I know, he is crap, everybody with a taste says.
His characters are flat. His language is bland. His world view is shallow. His plot is absurd. He is greatly flawed.

But he has an absolute power to absorb you from the very beginning to the very end, even in his weakest opus like "Deception Point".

I read all genres of thrillers, from Tom Clancy, through Kathy Reichs, to John Grisham. Every one of them has some shining points, but you will feel bored most of the time. No one has the talent of Dan Brown to catch you tight in every page.

So I believe there are two factions of writers. One faction includes Dan Brown alone. The other faction has all the other writers.

I am not paranoid. I am not a die hard fan of Dan Brown. I just want some books I cannot put down. I just find this humble request harder and harder to fulfil.

Now, my learned fellow readers, educate me, correct me, please! Add someone I don't know to the Dan Brown faction I mentioned above. I'd be overjoyed if I knew he was not alone.

Thanks you.

I am another reader who find that Dan Brown,s Books are not easy to put aside.

I would suggest that you try Krieg Larsson,s 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', and 'The Girl who Played with Fire'.
These are the first two of a trilogy. The last one should be out in a few weeks.

They are unputterdonable!

[奔跑的香肠]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Man, (or woman....)

You have the hots for Dan Brown. Or you are his mother. Or you are Dan Brown.

Brains are largely detrimental to enjoying Dan Brown's writing, or stories, IMO.

And really, what's wrong with sex...?

human and sex are always mutually inclusive in literature as they are in life.

Sex is definitely more than just a marketing gimmick. It plays a big role in unveiling human nature. But the problem I found in pop fictions is writing a decent and to-the-point sex scene is becoming more and more difficult and embarrassing. Few people would sit down and look at some steamy passages on a deeper level. Many sex descriptions in pop fictions are nothing but cliched sensationalism. they fail to serve the purpose.

So,when it comes to the sex part, what I expect is something smartly orchestrated, not packs of moans and groans.

[Riocaz]

Well you are right he's hard to put down...

Throw across a room however...

[doreenjoy]

I personally find the work of Raymond Chandler to be hard to put down. I recently stayed up all night reading The Big Sleep -- even though I'd read it before.

I second the recommendation of Jim Butcher, too.

But I never could make it off the first page of The DaVinci Code, so perhaps my concept of a "book you can't put down" is different from the OPs. I couldn't put Dan Brown down fast enough!

ETA: If you're offended by violence, you may want to steer clear of Chandler.

[doreenjoy]

Originally Posted by hywel

Groucho Marx (or someone like that, anyway) said something that applies well to Dan Brown's work:

'From the moment I picked up your book to the moment I put it down, I could not stop laughing. Some day I may even read it.'

Reminds me of a quote from a literary agent who briefly appeared on The Simpsons:

"This was the best book I've ever had my assistant give me a summary of."

[zacheryjensen]

Of all the authors I've run across, there's only one where I feel like every single word, on every single page has not just value to the story, but real importance. It's as though I've been presented with detailed information of exact instructions to achieve perfect bliss.

Of course I'm speaking of Ian Fleming, of James Bond fame. To be fair, I've only read his Bond novels, but with very few misses, I've been unable to stop reading for little more than sleep from beginning to end.

I chalk this up to Fleming's real life experience in reporting. It's terse, and his novels are short, but if you were to encounter real life scenarios with significance and enough "mass" to encompass a novel/novella, it would be similar because you would've written only what mattered. It seems to be the same with the Bond books. It reads like a brief, like you're about to go on a follow-up mission, which you have only moments to prepare for, and you're given the novel to catch you up. It can't be any longer than necessary.

So the result is a highly concentrated effort to convey the details of a really interesting series of encounters in as little space as possibly, causing you to be very interested and giving you a strong sense of urgency to find out what happened next.

[frui]

Yes zacheryjensen! Ian Flemming is the one. He kicks major ass, especially the ass of Tom Clancy.

Of course the thrilling of reading Flemming is quite different with thrilling of reading Dan Brown.

It's a pity that I have read quite a lot of 007 series. And I have to move on.

[frui]

Who could say Raymond Chandler is not good? But he is dated.
In the realm of thrillers, decaying happens very fast, save one or two absolute classics, such as Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.

For class I read old classics. For thrilling I always prefer the newest thrillers. Evolution theory does not apply to classics, but somehow fits the thriller scene. Just my 2 cents.

I agree with you the opening of Da Vinci Code is bad. I almost put it down at the first page myself. I recommend you read a bit further. I had not been hooked until Sophie appeared.

Originally Posted by doreenjoy

I personally find the work of Raymond Chandler to be hard to put down.But I never could make it off the first page of The DaVinci Code, so perhaps my concept of a "book you can't put down" is different from the OPs. I couldn't put Dan Brown down fast enough!

[BearMountainBooks]

I'd also recommend John Levitt. I know his second in the series is on Kindle. Not sure about Dog Days.

[frui]

This is not a sentence written by Dan Brown.
I now know how it comes about.

"The key to Dan Brown’s success" (Times August 15, 2009):
The cerebral stand-up comic Stewart Lee began his recent BBC Two series Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle with a blunted attack on Brown, stating: “The worst published author in the world today is also one of the most successful.” Afloat on a tangible wave of recognition from his audience, he mocked Brown for writing sentences such as: “The famous man looked at the red cup.”

Lee admits that he made the line up, having only “skimmed” Brown’s books, looking for examples of that plain, overliteral prose style.

Originally Posted by Moejoe

This is a sentence written by Dan Brown:

The famous man looked at the red cup.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

More than Mao's 'Little Red Book' ??

Yes, higher.

We are talking about INITIAL print run, not about total number of books ever printed. Total number of Little Red Book was printed during 10 years in 1820 state owned printing factories.

Also see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books
[Of Topic]
I love Wikipedia.
I do not care about dictionaries, but the first e-ink reader that can hold, search, and display in reasonable manner a complete database dump of Wikipedia, THAT would be something ...
[/Of Topic]

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by kacir

Yes, higher.

We are talking about INITIAL print run, not about total number of books ever printed. Total number of Little Red Book was printed during 10 years in 1820 state owned printing factories.

Also see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books
[Of Topic]
I love Wikipedia.
I do not care about dictionaries, but the first e-ink reader that can hold, search, and display in reasonable manner a complete database dump of Wikipedia, THAT would be something ...
[/Of Topic]

Well, that would be the Kindle . There is some question and controversy about the whether access to the internet will always be free on the Kindle. However, as to Wikipedia it is quite clear. The sales material says quite specifically that it comes with free access to wikipedia. Of course it is US-only for now and I don't know where you live, so it might not fit your definition of 'available'.

[bookbinder]

Originally Posted by ahi

A good book should be 1) interesting enough to compel the reader to continue reading, 2) plainly enough written that the reader understands, and ideally 3) elegantly/cleverly enough phrased so as to provide what I would describe as "a literary experience"... a sort of "delight at clever words and lovely and pleasantly varied expressions".

That seems to set the bar pretty low. What about growing in wisdom and virtue? Seeking what is true and good? Awakening and encouraging thoughtful reflection about "weighty human concerns"?

[ahi]

Originally Posted by bookbinder

That seems to set the bar pretty low. What about growing in wisdom and virtue? Seeking what is true and good? Awakening and encouraging thoughtful reflection about "weighty human concerns"?

I suppose that a book matching your criteria might be a great book... albeit, to be frank, I think rather little of a number of books that fit the bill of your criteria and fail mine.

Sometimes they just seem like they are written by people who believe they've got an idea that is brilliant beyond measure, but since they have no capacity whatsoever to make it a reality, they've decided to look for the easiest possible way to try to propagandize it to others in hopes that those others will somehow do so.

- Ahi

[wgrimm]

Originally Posted by Riocaz

Well you are right he's hard to put down...

Throw across a room however...

Yeah, Dan Brown is not very impressive. I made the unfortunate mistake of reading the "DaVinci Code," and it was a blatant rip-off of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail." Lots of bad writers out there......Nowadays, I tyend not to finish reading the bad books.