Decoding the Lost Symbol: The Unauthorized Expert Guide to the Facts Behind the Fiction

This book was great. It explained the history behind the book. I learned a lot more about the groups and symbols mentioned in the Lost Symbol. It also gave me the information I needed to do a lot more research for my writing.

Simon Cox's Decoding the Lost Symbol is the perfect resource to round out the historical knowledge presented in Dan Brown's newest release, and bestselling thriller, The Lost Symbol. What Brown covers in his fast-paced narrative in breadth--Freemasonry, alchemy, Noetic Science, and symbolism scattered around our nation's capital, among other themes--Cox covers the depth, filling in the holes and dissecting even the lesser referenced subjects in The Lost Symbol. And more important to the value of the book, the extent of Cox's research and focus on the subject matter is vividly clear in the quality of writing and inclusivity of the sixty carefully chosen topics, listed in an easy-to-reference alphabetical order. With a section of photographs and an extensive bibliography, Cox's book will satiate Brown fans' thirst for visual proof and authenticity of the obscure and incomprehensible. A first-rate book by a first-rate author, Cox's Decoding the Lost Symbol has earned its title as an "expert guide to the facts behind the fiction" of Dan Brown's novel many times over. Five stars! - By Julia Dudek, author of the psychological thriller [...] Review first published on [...]

Decoding The Lost Symbol by Simon Cox is the go-to book for those who want to read The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. If you have read Dan Brown's books, you know that they are filled with symbolism, conspiracy theories, secret societies, and historical oddities. The author has created a book that gives an insight to some of these references in The Lost Symbol. There is quite a bit of information about Freemasons, Thomas Jefferson and buildings in Washington DC. Some of the other topics are Ancient Mysteries, some Biblical references, historical figures and even one of my favorite artists, Albrecht Duer. A fun book whether you read Dan Brown's book or not!

Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol is the follow up book to The Davinci Code. It involves a lost symbol found on our nation's capital that turns out to be a mysterious inviation. Decoding the Lost Symbol by Simon Cox decodes the references to people, places and things in Dan Brown's book, The Lost Symbol. It is THE guide to all the mysterious references in The Lost Symbol. Not only is Decoding the Lost Symbol a guide for those who read The Lost Symbol, it's a guide to secret societies, forgotten history & conspiracies in general. Are you interested in the Great Pyramid? Maybe you're curious the Freemasons? Wondering about the CIA or the symbolism on our dollar bill? Just turn to the table of contents in Simon Cox's book, Decoding the Lost Symbol, to learn all about these and other mysteries in our history. You really don't need to have read Dan Brown's book, The Lost Symbol to enjoy Decoding the Lost Symbol. It's a book anyone interested in conspiracy theories or our mysterious history would enjoy.

A great book! I say that not as a Dan Brown fan. Dan Brown totally turned me off with his book DaVinci Code, because in the introduction he promised the "facts" were true, but that wasn't the case. Brown also said he did extensive research, but it was obvious he relied mostly on one source that wasn't very good. As a reader, I felt betrayed. For this reason, I don't read Dan Brown books. So why did I read a book that is about a Dan Brown book? Simon Cox has a reputation as an expert researcher, and I thought this work might be an interesting read. It was. And it's a worthy, engaging read even if you can't stand Dan Brown (I can't). Two things struck me about this book right away: 1. It was fast-tracked for publication. 2. It's excellent. Usually, these two characteristics are mutually exclusive. Somehow, Simon Cox managed to do both in one book. Perhaps he's related to Kimberly Cox, another person of outstanding merit and ability. I looked in the Acknowledgements, and didn't see the name.... This book stands on its own as a valuable collection of historical facts. Something struck me about this book upon completion: I didn't find errors of fact (there were a few typos). That is highly unusual. I normally find something wrong and often find a substantial list of factual errors in the various books I read and review. Of course, it helps that this work goes well beyond my knowledge level on these topics, so I'm not in a position to spot some errors that it might contain. But still, I usually catch something. And in this case, nada. As I read dozens of books each year and have found only a few that have ever pulled that off, Cox joins an elite club. If you like arcane history, this book is a treasure chest. As stated in its introduction, the book is structured in an A to Z format. That doesn't mean there are 26 chapters. It just means that topics starting with a given letter are covered, and those topics are in alphabetical order. Six topics start with the letter A, and none start with X or Y. Cox, it turns out, has written four other A to Z works. He seems to have a flair for this format. The introduction is 15 pages long. The body of the work is 221 pages long. Normally when I read a book that I like, my reading speed goes up and I later refer to it as a fast read. This book isn't a fast read, though the writing style is crisp and conversational. It's the kind of book that I like to linger over. I like to flip back and forth in to correlate one set of facts with another. Though it's an easy read, it's more the kind of book you'd want to study. It makes an excellent addition to anyone's library. If you have regular lunch or dinner companions, consider asking them to buy a copy so you have some lesser-known history to bat about (assuming you like substantial conversations). For example, why is the Washington Monument 555 feet tall instead of the originally planned 600 feet and why is it located in its present location rather than the orig