I am a hypocrite because i absolutely refuse to read the da vinci code no matter how many people tell me i should or how good a page turner it is!!. If i want crackpot theories of religious mysteries i will make my own up rather than read something written by that arrogant sod - - - - but i aint ever going to tell anyone else that they really shouldnt be reading it and i am not going to call it rubbish without reading it first
Seriously you won't miss much, Brown even moves some of the monuments around within rome wo make them fit the story.
Though his chapter construction (always end on a cliff hanger) is so cynical it's almost a work of art.
Christ he even got the Illumantus conspiracy theorys wrong, and they are well documented.
In Deception Point (borrowed from somebody in work), he even gets confused as to what a firewall is (a major plot point), even feckin Andy McNab got that much right in one of his ghost written books
Anyway I like the Harry Potter books as thy enable me to disengage my brain for a few hours.
For serious fun )lots of sex violence and Rock *N Roll) without switching the brain off try
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy and also The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles
Also you learn the meaning of the number 23
