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Lost Symbol Sets Record in First Day

Da Vinci Code follow-up sells 1M copies in 24 hours

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 16, 2009 2:12 PM CDT

(Newser) – To the surprise of exactly no one, Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code follow-up, The Lost Symbol, is a smash hit, selling, between its hardcover and e-book editions, 1 million copies in its first day on the shelves, the New York Times reports. Amazon and Barnes & Noble both say it’s the best first day any adult fiction book has ever seen.

Doubleday has already fired up the presses to crank out another 600,000 copies, to supplement the 5 million copies already in print. Publishers are hoping its success bodes well for the raft of upcoming novels from big names like Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, and Nick Hornby. Also sure to sell big: Ted Kennedy’s memoir, which hits this week. “This is going to be a very good next four weeks for books,” says one analyst.

Jon Howells, press officer for Waterstone's booksellers, poses for the cameras as he reads a signed copy of Dan Brown's new book 'The Lost Symbol' in London.
Jon Howells, press officer for Waterstone's booksellers, poses for the cameras as he reads a signed copy of Dan Brown's new book 'The Lost Symbol' in London.   (AP Photo/ Alastair Grant)
In this book cover image released by Random House, Dan Brown's book The Lost Symbol, is shown.
In this book cover image released by Random House, Dan Brown's book "The Lost Symbol," is shown.   (AP Photo/Random House)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 3 comments
Guest
Sep 16, 2009 8:33 PM CDT
I thought the Da Vinci Code was tedious, poorly written and ridiculously over-hyped. So I've not read anything more by this author, which seems to put me in a minority - I think he's dull and the rest of the world disagrees. Sigh. Where did my literary education go wrong?
Guest
Sep 16, 2009 5:34 AM CDT
Ho hum.
Guest
Sep 16, 2009 4:59 AM CDT
The local Catholic church got an advance copy last Tuesday. The publisher's note had apparently fallen out while sitting open on a reading stand at the church and blew out the window. The wind must have been pretty strong because it traveled halfway across downtown, some 1,000 meters, before it landed on the window of a car in the parking lot of the Suzukiya grocery store. One of the customers was returning from buying a liter of olive oil for her son's seventh birthday party. She found the note and put it in her shopping bag not even bothering to read it. As the boy blew out the candle on his cake, he spontaneously blurted out, "I want to write fiction cruelly mixed with fact and screw with everyone's mind!" ...................... The boy then took Wednesday's flight JAL 1319 to Paris and buried the note under the inverted glass pyramid at the Louvre

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