British grocery stores move The Lost Symbol like fresh strawberries
The Tesco chain announced today that it had sold Dan Brown’s new thriller on its release day at the nationwide rate of 19 copies a minute, while rival Asda announced sales figures of 18,000 copies sold by 4 p.m. Meanwhile, world champion speed reader Anne Jones claimed to have devoured the 508-page adventure of symbologist Robert Langdon in just 41 minutes and 55 seconds, even as most reviewers (presumably speed readers themselves) were castigating it as, in the words of one, “moronic, derivative and clunky.” Nonetheless, The Lost Symbol seems certain to become the bestselling adult novel in U.K. publishing history.