Random House, in a feat of marketing genius, is making the digital edition of The Da Vinci Code free for the next week -- since, um, everyone's already read it anyway. The main reason they're doing it, of course, is to include an excerpt of Dan Brown's new novel Inferno. Well, friends, I was as curious as the next person, so I downloaded the book and clicked to the excerpt, which includes a prologue and first chapter. Skimming over the prologue, I came to chapter one, and this magnificent first line:
The memories materialized slowly ... like bubbles surfacing from the darkness of a bottomless well.
To all you writers out there struggling with perfecting your prose, look upon those words and weep. WEEP, I SAY!