wheresrhys

I’m a little bit of a literary snob. Not the full-blown version that will name drop obscure french authors into conversations about chips, but I do take a certain pride in picking books that are stimulating and not just light entertainment.

A few months ago I was at Victoria train station when I came across  a table full of books called The Gaudi Key. I have no idea how similar to The Da Vinci Code the book’s plot or characters are, but I could hardly believe the unashamedly formulaic title, not to mention the cover design. The Da Vinci Formula seems to be:

Call the book “The [insert mediterranean artist (or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle) name] [insert synonym for mystery or puzzle]“, and try and make the cover look a bit like an old manuscript.

Confirmed today by my finding a book called The Trudeau Vector. Now, Trudeau isn’t a renaissance figure, and a vector isn’t a synonym for riddle so I’ve had to modify the rule a little to:

Call the book “The [insert renaissance figure (or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle) name, or anyone who people might vaguely have heard but not from Big Brother] [insert synonym for mystery or puzzle, or any sort of impressive cerebral sounding activity]“, but do make sure the cover looks a bit like an old manuscript as this is the important bit.

Needless to say I rejected it in favour of an excellent popular science book called Deep Simplicity (which could, quite reasonably, have been titled “The Poincare Formula”. I’ve read it before, but I just fancied some light entertainment during this balmy Dutch heatwave.