Thursday, January 27, 2011

Snow day reading

I know everyone is waiting breathlessly for the continuation of my latest Hong Kong chronicle and I promise I will get back to it. I have been in a bit of a winter funk, which is not that unusual for me really. This winter has been unusually snowy and I have become a bit of a hermit. I used to be a non-stop reader but at some point I became a non-stop movie watcher. Now, I am, well, either I am switching back to being more of a reader or maybe I am just finding a better balance in my life. Time will tell.

My latest book is "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" which I have been sneaking peeks at over the shoulders of my fellow subway riders for what seems like the longest time now, so I decided to give it a go. And I have to say, I am a bit underwhelmed. Am I missing something? I realize it is a translation of the original. Some of the stuff just was too tedious for me, if I hadn't read a review that warned me about how the book started with that detailed analysis of financial misdeeds I probably wouldn't have lasted long. And the long passages detailing every step of a murder investigation which only served to make me sympathize with the characters needing to alternate between acquavit and coffee.

I did like the character Lisabeth, I found her refreshingly different, she is a highly functional dysfunctional woman. Meanwhile the character of Mikael was too "perfect": smart, high morals and every woman wants to sleep with him. That kind of character is not so refreshing to me, sort of every man's dream of himself. Reeks of James Bond but without the sense of humor.

I am no literary critic and wouldn't even bring this up here except I feel like I missed something here, why is this series so popular? Can anyone explain that to me? It seems like everyone has read or is reading this trilogy and I am just not sure if I want to continue it. I do want to know what happens to Lisabeth, and how she got to be so dysfunctional but I might just skip the books and watch the movies--after all how many more snow days can I possibly have this winter? (Don't answer that question!)

1 comment:

  1. BTW, I did decide to keep reading. I have now read the whole series. I don't think the author is a great writer in terms of organization and it wouldn't be fair to comment on his language since it was a translation but I have to say that Lisbeth is one of the most fascinating characters I have come across in quite some time. I would recommend that if one starts to hate parts of the book(s) unrelated to Lisbeth that you just skim over it versus giving up.

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