I just noticed that Dan Brown’s most famous book The Da Vinci Code, which is still banned in Lebanon, is available for free until March 24th as an e-book from all major retailers online.
So if you have never read the book and are in the possession of an iOS or Kindle-enabled device, this is your chance. The offer is valid for U.S. and Canada but if you have a U.S. iTunes store or Amazon account, you’re good to go.
If you don’t have a U.S. iTunes account, here are the steps to do one:
- Sign out of your current iTunes account,
- Go to the U.S. iTunes store and try to buy a free app.
- Set up a new account using a different email from the one you already have and choose payment as none. Billing address and phone numbers can be anything.
- Verify your account.
Amazon has a similar approach. Just go to Amazon.com and set up an account.
This will allow you to buy free stuff, including books and music, that are available on the U.S. iTunes store only.
You can find the book on iTunes here and on Amazon here.
This free version of the book also contains an exclusive sneak peek into Dan Brown’s upcoming book Inferno. It includes the prologue as well as the first chapter. It seems the book will be centered around an organization called “The Consortium.”
Inferno will be released on May 14th and I’ll read it and review it then.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
Why is The Da Vinci Code banned in Lebanon? For fear of insulting religious sensibilities?
I’ve read the book, and part of his second book, and it seemed to me that both books were basically the same story: It’s a game of what we call “Happes et Hamatmon”- a treasure hunt. At each stage you find a clue that leads you to the next stage. The details differ, but the basic premise stays the same. I found it tiring… But enjoy!
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Yeah, the Church didn’t want it to be released here therefore it was banned. I think they went more with word of mouth than actually reading it because the book upon which Da Vinci Code is based (Holy Grail something) is actually allowed here. But the Church hasn’t heard of that yet – a friend told me it’s a horrible book (quality-wise, not content).
There’s actually a book preceding Da Vinci. It’s called “Angels and Demons” and it remains my favorite of the Robert Langdon series. Compared to that, the two books that followed (Da Vinci and Lost Symbol) are in gradually decreasing quality. Lost Symbol was downright horrible and I wasn’t even interested in the side stories about the free masons.
But yeah, the books are definitely more or less color by number. I don’t read them for the plot itself as much as for the research he does, which is always interesting in my opinion – regardless of whether it goes as conspiracy theory or is actually founded in reality. I think Inferno will be good because it takes Langdon back to Italy and there’s a lot of history there for some decent story, unlike Washington DC.
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Inferno looks better than lost symbol
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The first chapter was much more interesting than the Lost Symbol which I hated.
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