[cedsav]

I really liked the The Island of the Day Before. Truly fascinating. Foucault's Pendulum is good too, but like all his work, it's not an easy read. If you want something more intellectually rewarding than Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code), Eco is your guy.

[maw]

If you want something more intellectually rewarding than Brown you have many, many options.

You are of course right that Eco pushes a number of the same buttons that Brown does, yet without being ridiculous.

[justin66]

Arturo Pérez-Reverte is the poor man's Umberto Eco. Dan Brown is the very poor man's Arturo Pérez-Reverte.