Finished reading ‘Da Vinci Code’ by Dan Brown yesterday. It is very gripping and fast paced. Enjoyed reading a thriller after a long time. Reading the disclaimer on the first page stating that all the references to artwork, secret organisations and rituals etc. are real, makes it hard to figure out where fiction stops and reality starts. This very fact makes it the engrossing best-seller that it has become.

I am not giving away anything from the story here, but one claim about the ‘extra hand with knife’ in Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ is definitely false. I saw the original fresco in Milan a couple of years ago. It is pretty hard to make any judgment if that hand with the knife belongs to the man next to it or not by looking at it from the distance that is allowed in the museum. The overall condition of the fresco is pretty bad because that whole building except this one wall was destroyed during WWII. I bought a book at the museum that has closeup photographs of different parts of the fresco and it clearly shows that the hand with the knife belongs to the man next to it.

Considering the controversial topic discussed in the book, there is no wonder that a slew of books was published during the last year as companions to the Da Vinci code or countering the claims of Da Vinci Code. Here is a short list…