An Evening with Dan Brown

Tonight I headed along to the first official event that coincided with the launch of the 2013 Dublin Writers Festival, An Evening with Dan Brown. It took place in the National Concert Hall in Dublin which is such a lovely venue. I actually hadn't been there since I was about 12 years old so it was nice to go back. It really hasn't changed one bit. I'm a big fan of Dan Brown's books so when I heard he was going to be in Dublin to talk about his new book Inferno I immediately picked up two tickets for my Dad and myself. I bought the tickets back in March for his birthday as I knew it would be something he'd really look forward to and enjoy. With studying and the exam rush, the time flew by so quickly and I was surprised when my Mum reminded me over the weekend that we were in fact going today. Of course these events are really strict and there was no photography of any kind allowed. I did manage to take a few snaps before the talk actually started so I hope that's enough for you guys.

Like myself my Dad is a huge bookworm so when the latest Dan Brown was released last week I bought it for him on Saturday. He's a super quick reader so I wasn't surprised when he told me today he had finished it. According to my Dad this in his opinion is one of Dan Brown's best books (after Angels & Demons) so far, he's a big book critic so he doesn't give comments like this out lightly. If this is the case , I can't wait to start reading a.s.a.p. I feel like I haven't read a book in ages with studying,exams and work it was very hard to find some spare time. I can't wait to sit down with a good book and a nice hot chocolate soon.

Now for the event itself, I personally didn't know what to expect from it. I know sometimes from my experience when you go to these sort of things they can come across as kind of boring. This is far from the case when it came to listening to Dan Brown talk tonight. He started off by telling the audience a bit about his background (his Mum is an avid church goer whilst his Dad was a Mathematician) and how he wrote his first book when he was five. He then went on to talk a bit about his books before he was asked some questions that people submitted before the talk began. Two exciting bits of information that came out is they may make a The Lost Symbol into a move and who knows they may bring Robert Langdon to Dublin. I also found it very interesting to hear how he researches locations and coming up with themes/ideas for his books. All in all Dan Brown came across as such a honest, down to earth man, clearly the fame hasn't gone to his head one little bit. As he said during the talk, writers aren't like movie stars or musicians who crave the limelight, they prefer to remain in the background.

There has been some negative feedback in the papers regarding Dan Brown's appearance at the 2013 Dublin Writers Festival. Many literary critics don't rate Dan Brown's books which is outrageous in my opinion as I think they're amazing. One paper went as far as saying that only 600 out of the 1,200 seats where sold for the event tonight. Believe me I was there and there definitely seemed to be way more people then that. It just shows it's absolutely impossible to please everyone, plus papers will put anything in their pages to fill up space.

Have you read any of Dan Brown's book? Will you be picking up Inferno?

Laura<3