It’s no secret that Dan Brown’s latest novel is an instant hit

my mom made the matching bookmark!

Iceland has a national tradition called Jólabókaflóð, or the "Christmas Book Flood." Families give each other books on Christmas Eve and spend the holiday reading together. Iceland publishes an astonishing five titles per every 1,000 residents, and most books in the country are sold from late September to early November. This tradition began during World War II, when strict currency restrictions limited the amount of imported giftware. Imported paper was less restricted than other products, so Icelanders often gave books as Christmas gifts.

My family had heard about this and loved the idea. We drew names and each provided three book titles we’d be interested in receiving. The first two books on my list were business-related. I received a text message from my mom: “Do you really want to be working over Christmas?” I could sense her displeasure with my selections. I wasn’t too surprised when I opened my present to find the sole fiction book — The Secret of Secrets. I would have been grateful for any of the books I chose, and now I’m thrilled that she picked this one for me.

This novel kept my attention from the moment I began reading — so much so that I completely abandoned Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, which I’m currently reading with my book club.

The page before the prologue reads...
"FACT:
All artwork, artifacts, symbols, and documents in this novel are real.

All experiments, technologies, and scientific results are true to life.

All organizations in this novel exist."

Brown’s thriller was mind-bending, and as I read, I kept thinking back to that information at the beginning. The story, while fictional, contains many elements that are very real. I was awestruck learning about concepts related to human consciousness, human-to-machine interfacing, and quantum physics. One of the novel’s main characters is a noetic scientist who shares incredibly compelling work.

Noetic science is the study of the mind and consciousness and attempts to link subjective experience with objective reality. The word noetic comes from the Greek noēsis, meaning “mind,” “inner knowing,” or “direct insight.” It explores the idea that consciousness is more than just a byproduct of the brain.

Now that I’ve reached the end, I can return to Babel once again. But Brown’s book, and the ideas it introduced, are ones I’ll definitely continue learning about.