Like many 'reader Freemasons' (all 10 or 12 of us), I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Unfortunately, however, my usual vocation (as Masons would say) was going to get in the way. Inevitable! However, I knew my trusty iPhone was there to help, aid and assist. Having a pre-ordered copy for the Kindle - you did know that your iPhone will handily read anything from Kindle, right? - I was well along hours before the UPS driver came to the door. The sty in my eye made things difficult admittedly, particularly when one wears glasses.

Although I'd picked at some books on the iPhone previously - mostly PDF things and not Kindle formatted - this was the first time since owning my 3G that I'd felt an urgency about reading and thus it was important to get snatches of it done wherever and whenever I could. (I sincerely apologize to all those folks in the middle of a construction stop on Route 1A on Wednesday morning when I became engrossed and failed to see the traffic starting again to get through the single lane....)

And so it was that The Lost Symbol became the first book I'd begun and read entirely on my iPhone. While I picked up the physical book one night, I quickly went back to the electronic one which I was able to take to the kitchen to sustain me (as if it was needed) and one other important room in the house where reading is frequently done.

It was a good read and Freemasonry can, despite some of the pieces in the plot, be pleased. There is, I believe, a large reservoir of goodwill towards the fraternity that many Masons may have never realized. I think with this book topping off things like National Treasure, we're going to find more good men knocking at our doors, anti-Masonic ranting notwithstanding. I've got a review at masonicinfo.com in case you're interested.

But this post is about the iPhone. It was GREAT. In fact, I'm likely going to be doing a LOT of my 'relax-reading' this way in the future. It remembers where you are, you can turn down page corners (REALLY - Visually!), and the book is right there if you want to go back. The Kindle formatting is gorgeous and on this particular book where there are lots of pictures (sorta), it handled them REALLY well - working with the text to build suspense actually.

I give my iPhone a REAL Bravo Zulu (you Navy guys and gals will understand) for this and although you might not want to buy an iPhone just to read a Dan Brown novel, you might want to think about it!

And the pic in this post was taken of my iPhone BY my iPhone camera. Easy to do!

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In just a few days, some Masons will be looking for The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. A number of us have pre-ordered it and, if done through Amazon or some other booksellers, will have it on September 15th. Others of us will we waiting anxiously by our iPhone for it's arrival shortly after midnight in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

The technological changes that have happened in this world since Freemasonry was formed in its present structure some 300 years ago are simply too monumental to consider. Even in the lives of readers of this blog, there are things which the science fiction comics could never have predicted - and transmitting books via airwaves seems to be one.

Having this long-awaited book within just a few minutes of its release may not be the most important thing in life (and if it is, then you REALLY don't understand Freemasonry) but it will be fun to read a few chapters before turning in for the night (morning) next Monday.

Oh, and there's one other point: if you've got an Amazon Kindle DX, one $10 purchase will put a copy on both your Kindle AND your iPhone with synching so you can read whichever one is handy. Isn't technology wonderful? If Dan Brown has been good to Freemasonry, you may want to be showing it to all your friends - right there from your iPhone!

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