I was watching the ABC (in OZ) last night. They had a show called "My favourite book" where they got viewers to nominate their favourite. Anyway, the da vinci code was #8 (I think). The panelists discussing included James Oloughlin (or however you spell his name). He said he thought it was a terrible book - he said something like "if the plot is just completely unbelievable I can't keep reading".
For each book in the top 10 they had a little intro. This was done by Matthew Reilly who is an Aussie author who excels in writing "page turning" crap bestsellers
He said something like - this is a great book - it is really hard to write page turners.
Chris from The Chaser topped off what I thought when he said (paraphrased) "if this top book thing was done in a years time this book would not appear".
I guess you have to be able to disguish between a good book and a good read. I think a good book is one you can re-read and enjoy, while I think a good read maybe only read once.
People who pick up a work of fiction really have to realise that is what they are looking at. It is like looking around for robots in Chicago after having seen "I robot" at the movies.
I think that the author saying "this book is filled with facts" is just the beginning of the fiction.