This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
It's been a rough year for libraries in L.A., thanks to budget cuts, but patrons still used the Los Angeles Public Library's 72 branch locations to check out books. I asked the LAPL what the most checked-out book was in 2010: Book borrowing Angelenos spent last year following Robert Langdon as he worked to untangle the mysteries of Freemasonary in Dan Brown's novel The Lost Symbol.
The novel is the third in the series that kicked off with The DaVinci Code. In this story, though, hero Langdon is on US soil and probing the nation's capital. I'll admit that while I am a card-carrying LAPL member, I'm in the category of people who roll their eyes at the mere mention of Dan Brown (and, evidently, in the minority) and the most I've read of "The Lost Symbol" is in its review in the LA Times, which tells me that the book's plot contains "Alchemists, Egyptians and rabbi sages" and "the U.S. government's eavesdropping tactics in the war on terror, superstring theory and the New Agey-sounding study of noetics."
Apparently Angelenos dig this stuff, which is perhaps more fascinating than "The Lost Symbol" itself.
