Only a few more hours until "The Lost Symbol"

So I have been waiting for this day for months! I mean, I was looking forward to it after I read his first four books (the first time), but particularly after the release of the Angels and Demons movie (side note: Ewan McGregor as the Camerlengo = amazing!), when I heard the new book finally had a release date! September 15th, 2009 - a great day for the novel!

If you haven't 'cracked the code' yet, Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol is being released today. And I am beyond excited. His books keep me reading from cover to cover. The chapters are all super short (rarely longer than five or six pages), but always contain a cliff-hanger, and since I know the next chapter is also going to be super short too, I always tell myself I'll just read one more!

Five hours later, it's four o'clock in the morning and I have to get up for school in three hours. That is the brilliance of Dan Brown. He manages to maintain suspense throughout a lengthy novel PACKED with historical and geographic references, complex codes, scientific facts, and random pieces of knowledge. I feel like I learn so much, but never get bored!

So you can imagine my excitement today when I pulled my copy of Maclean's out of the mailbox, and the cover reads "The Next Da Vinci Code". Brian Bethune previews the book and points out some impressive facts. Doubleday, Brown's publisher, claims that approximately 10% of all adults WHO CAN READ have read The Da Vinci Code.

The book is also under some Harry Potter-esque security. Bethune claims that a maximum 10 people in Brown's various offices have been allowed to read the book - however, in the interest of promotion, Matt Lauer was granted permission as well! (SO jealous).

But other than those 11 people, all the rest of us know about the book is that it involves the familiar protagonist Robert Langdon, it takes place in Washington over a 12-hour period, it involves the Freemasons, and its release date has some significance.

Hmm. Well, only another few hours, and I will be as enlightened as Matt Lauer!