Reader’s Diary

Sandra Miesel, Carl E. Olson

Either “The DaVinci Code” is bunk not worth debunking, or it’s misleading people and needs correction. I tried reading “Code” but it didn’t grab me. It’s pulp - cheap pulp - and I can hardly believe anyone bothered to finish it, much less that it became a best seller. So I didn’t think there was need for book to set the historical record straight. Then a family member quoted an anti-Catholic “fact” from the novel and I realized that even people like me who don’t care about “Code” one way or another should be ready to counter its arguments.

“The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The Da Vinci Code” is a good tool to dismantle the misconceptions of the novel’s gullible readers. Miesal and Olson quote extensively from the novel, so their readers don’t have to have read Brown’s bilge to follow their arguments. They back up their arguments with numerous footnoted facts on art and Church history.

This isn’t a terribly enjoyable read - it’s dry and a bit too long - but it is a good antidote to Brown.

Bob Woodward

This is an inside account of the decision to attack Iraq. As usual, Woodward seems to have a backstage pass to the White House and there’s plenty of detail. However, there is little insight, and no real answer to the question, “how did we get into the mess we’re in in Iraq?”

In sharp contrast to the Bush that Woodward portrayed in “Bush At War“, the Bush in “Plan of Attack” is stubborn, almost a bully, not the masterful manager of the earlier book. In Woodward’s latest tale Colin Powell is loyal, but the reader is left wondering why he went along with a course of action he clearly didn’t believe in.

Kevin F. McMurray

This is a straightforward adventure story about the diver’s Everest, the 250-foot-deep wreck of the Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria. McMurray doesn’t spend much time dealing with the motivations of men who risk their lives for crockery, but does give graphic accounts of decades of dives and their sometimes-fatal consequences.

Paul Graham

The “and Painters” part of the title is more a marketing hook than a description of the contents, but Graham’s essays on software and business are well worth reading. The chapters on Lisp, money, and startups are especially good.