Dan Brown, who was guest of honor at last week's Sharjah International Book Fair, may be one of the world's wealthiest authors, able to fly anywhere at the drop of a conspiracy theory, but he had never been to the Middle East before, having by his own admission, "spent so much time in Europe researching Christianity and western cultural history. So, on a personal level I needed to start stepping out in the wider world to learn about other things. That was part of the reason why I came, but of course, I also wanted to meet my Arab readership."
His appearance at the fair was a huge coup for the organizers, to say the least. Brown is not on the circuit in the way some writers are, and he is a somewhat reclusive author. "I don't speak often and I don't go to book fairs," he explained, before being whisked off to lunch with Sharjah's Ruler, His Highness, Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi. "Book fairs are wonderful, but my feeling is the best possible thing I can do for my readers, and for the book business, is to write, and if I get caught up going to book fairs and interviews and all that, I don't write as well and I don't write as quickly. And I've really decided that when I'm in writing mode I'm in writing mode and I just pull the shades and live a very simple life."
