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Milk it!

With sales of upwards of 25 million copies and a broad readership that even includes In Other Media’s mother, who, as a rule, does not read books written in English, The Da Vinci Code truly is ubiquitous. As part of the media blitz leading up to the book’s North American paperback release on March 28, CBC Arts correspondent (and Q&Q contributing editor) Craig Taylor reports on the latest commercial venture to milk the popularity of Catholic conspiracy: a Da Vinci Code-themed walking tour through London.

The excursion is just one of 300 put on by London Walks, London’s premier touring company. Taking participants to landmarks featured in the book, the tour is not without its quirks. For example, Taylor writes of a tour guide named Tom who told “a story about the crowds when the walks first began. Fans with open copies of the book stood in front of him, ready to refute and point out any slight misquote….”

“As we move up to Fleet Street, I walk with Kevin Miller, a student from Philadelphia, who is looking confused. Is he struggling with the symbolic ramifications? ‘My whole trip has been a bit of a blur,’ he says. ‘Part of me thinks I’m still in Greece ’cause that’s where I was yesterday. I read the book ages ago and this seemed like a way of doing something I could tell my parents about.’ Are they conspiracy theorists, too? ‘No, it’s just I have to have something to tell them. I’m not going to be mentioning a lot of what I did in Greece.'”

Related links:
Click here for Taylor’s piece on the CBC Arts website

By

January 10th, 2006

12:00 am

Category: Book news

Tagged with: CBC, Da Vinci Code, London, media, piracy, The Crow