Hop on the bandwagon everyone, it's pop culture time! Despite all protestations to the contrary, I just read Dan Brown's DaVinci Code over the last two days, and found it quite enjoyable--the fact that it ends in Scotland was my excuse, I swear. Despite the pedestrian style of the novel, the massive amount of religious history and theories included made the book much more interesting than your typical thriller. Now I find myself wondering what truth there is to assertions about the role of women in pagan religions before Emperor Constantine sanctioned Christianity. There are many questions raised, and I want to know more about how many of these assertions are designed for use in novels only, and how many are actually present as serious assertions or even facts in the academic realm.

Oddly enough, that may have been the first thriller I've read in over a year--shocking.