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It's difficult to say when is the best time to read Decoding the Lost Symbol - after you've read Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol or before. So I guess for some people it's read Decoding the Lost Symbol first and it may help to understand what is unfolding and what the various "symbols" and clues mean as the conspiracy is revealed; or read it last and seeing if Dan Brown's book makes sense to you. Then you can feel proud about unscrambling all the clues on your own and then having bragging rights.
Simon Cox has made it a bit of an art form with this genre as companion edition's to Dan Brown titles - with Cracking the Da Vinci Code and Illuminating Angels & Demons and now Decoding the Lost Symbol.
Decoding the Lost Symbol is an interesting read in its own right and can be read without reference to The Lost Symbol, although its intent is clearly to fill out a lot of the detail and background to many of the concepts that permeate The Lost Symbols' story line.
Cox has chosen around 60 of those themes from The Lost Symbol such as, the All-Seeing Eye, The Apotheosis of Washington, the Captial Building, the Freedom Plaza, Freemasonry (this concept crops up or is a central theme time and again im many of the 60 items he covers), the Great Seal of the United States, the Library of Congress, Rosicrucians, the Smithsonian Institute and the Washingtom Monument, to name a few, as well as some of the founding fathers of the United States, such as, Benjiman Franklin, Thomas Jeffison and George Washington and numerous architects and engineers responsible for the design and building of many of the buildings of Nation's Capital.
Many of these 60 topics are interrelated. Cox goes into varying degrees of detail on the history, background, connections and context of each, alluding to and teasing out the symbolism and the potential for "conspiricy" to arise. I had no idea how much of a field day a cryptologst could have on the humble one dollar (US) bill. It seems it's layered with symbols, numerous of which sporn further potential hidden meaning.
Reading a book like this does make the suspicion gland go into overdrive and have you taking furtive glances over your shoulder. As I read in the train I began to think "is that man, looking over his newspaper at me, a Freemason, Rosicrucian or a Shriner" (you have to read to book for that one).
All in all Decoding the Lost Symbol is an entertaining and informative read and will make a good companion edition to Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. This is a book you can delve into at various points and use as a reference if you get lost or confused and need some background filler.
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