h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I bought the book back then. I wanted to find out what all the hype was about. I very nearly gave up reading it. I looked up every single translation (provided at the end of the book) of all the Latin words and phrases. It slowed me down. I was bored. Then a friend told me to keep reading, and that it would get really fascinating - a few chapters on. So I did - and it did.
Still, it made me wonder whether all those people who bought the book actually read it, too.

My sister has 'Foucault's Pendulum' as an audio book. I only ever listened to the beginning, and we were in the car at the time, so it was hard to understand what was actually being said. Maybe I should give that another go once.

I read Foucault´s Pendulum but found it very hard going. If you were fascinated by ´The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail´, then you might enjoy it. If not, you probably won´t.

Okay, now I'm the opposite. I remember when 'The Name of the Rose' came out. I didn't like it at all. I wasn't happy about the mediaeval detective stuff.

But I'm a fan of 'Foucault's Pendulum'. (Okay, I love the 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' business. Fair cop. I can't pass up a good conspiracy theory.)

I enjoyed 'Baudolino'. I'm still working on reading 'The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana'.

Eco is a scholar's idea of a novelist. To me, his work is much like that of Perez-Reverte: an interesting take on just about everything.

Not a good airplane read, though.

Foucault's Pendulum has a conspiracy in it? Sounds like my book then.

I know it's not popular on h2g2, but I've enjoyed the Dan Brown books, too (namely the Da Vinci Code and a couple of others whose titles I don't recall).

Grr. I got mad about those, because 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' was more exciting. And that wasn't a novel.

I felt The Da Vinci Code was closer to the truth than The Holy Blood/Grail, though.

The Lost Symbol was like a slow, po-faced version of the Da Vinci Code.

The Mysterious Flame was odd - it would probably mean more if I was Italian. But still interesting.

Oh, you mean the conclusion it drew, rather than all that other stuff about sacred Merovingians? You have a point there. As a paper chase, Elektra and I thought the whole schlamazzel was a hoot.

I get the same feeling. A multilingual Italian would probably get more out of his books.