Dan Brown Day

Two hundred signed copies of the book — said to be the only ones on sale in the world — had not sold out several hours after Waterstone’s opened the doors at its flagship store in Piccadilly, Central London, at 7am.

Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol was launched today, yet despite the hype hasn't been greeted with Harry Potter type enthusiasm, reports Mary Bowers in The Times. Apparently, about 40 people had queued from before dawn to secure copies of the book, including fans from Pakistan, Denmark and (wait for it) Malaysia.*

Early reviews in the New York Times and LA Times have been largely positive although David Sexton reviews the book in London's Evening Standard and finds it :

Moronic, derivative and clunky in fact everything his fans were hoping for.

Random House Australia marked the launch by roping in 40 to read the book from 9am, with the first to finish giving their review to the waiting press at noon. (And the world champion speed reader Anne Jones claimed to have devoured the 506-page novel in just 41 minutes and 55 seconds.)



Will there be another novel after The Lost Symbol? Perhaps you could write it with the help of Slate magazine's Dan Brown Sequence Generator. Very funny!

Postscript :

*Maybe all the British buyers had gone to the supermarkets to buy? The Guardian reports that :

Tesco was selling 19 copies a minute from displays next to its fruit and vegetables and Asda shifted 18,000 copies by 4pm.