
Anyway, I think the primary reason reading is held in higher regard is that people aren't willing to investigate further. You can say that you're an avid reader and people will generally take it at face value. If they happen to probe far enough to get a reading list, odds are whatever you're reading isn't what your interrogator is reading (with a few, very popular exceptions) and they just leave it at that. With TV, you mention a show that you watch and even if the person has never seen a whole episode, odds are he or she has seen or heard enough about it to make a quick judgment. Books? Not so much... What are these "books" you speak of? That's why people just pretend they've heard of whatever you're reading and leave it at that.
Anyway, this all came up recently when I was lent a book that turned out to be a slutty romance novel starring vampires. It's a long story, but for those of you who work with me, you know all

Diatribe over, moving on. As an English major, I spent the better part of my higher education (and K-12 education, for that matter) being required to read things. Nothing makes a book less fun to read than a deadline and an essay test at the end. Plus, my rebellious "I kinda sorta hate authority" sensibilities didn't help with my work ethic. By and large these requirements were classics, and while I could appreciate why they were classics most of the time, it didn't make them any quicker or easier to read (especially when you have to parse each and every line for subtext and crap). I've read a hell of a lot of classics and enjoyed the majority of them. This indoctrination, however, led to my exclusion of regular books. Even my extra-curricular reading somehow turned into an overview of the great works of literature. Again, enjoyable in its own right, but not exactly the carefree, quick read that one can wrap up in a weekend.
This ridiculously long, meandering preamble leads me to the point of this post [Whoa, whoa, there's a point?! I'm a little shocked myself.] I have recently decided to throw caution to the wind (read: classics to the bottom of the stack) and read some novels that came out within the last century and that don't require an Old English to English dictionary. It has kind of reminded me how fun and effortless reading can be after a long, protracted affair with the English department. It has been a welcomed change of pace and I've stumbled on to a few winners.
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
(by Stieg Larsson)
I mentioned this book recently in a post about Spooks and lamented the fact that the title had been changed for the English version. As you may have read, the real translation of the book's original Swedish title roughly equals "Men Who Hate Women". Having read the book, I can unequivocally say that that is not

From that description, you'd probably think this book is incredibly heavy and serious and would be a terrible slog to get through, but the serious subject matter is handled in a very straight-forward, unsentimental way that is woven into a gripping narrative. Larrson doesn't belabor his points, but rather just presents the events as they happen and the reader draws his or her own conclusions. It's extremely effective without being overbearing.
The central storyline revolves around the disappearance of a 16-year-old Harriet Vanger, some 40 years prior. (I'll try to keep this spoiler free, but for a sprawling murder mystery like this, that's not going to be easy. You've been warned.) One of the girl's elderly relatives, Henrik Vanger (I believe he's her grandfather's brother--you figure out how "second" or "third" or "removed" that makes him) employs an unlikely person to figure out what happened to the girl. Through an intricate series of events, Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced financial journalist begins the daunting task of unraveling a mystery that is steeped in family intrigue, betrayal, suspicion, and hatred, using little more than a dead-end police report, some old photographs, and the family secrets imparted along the way. In his pursuit of the truth, he ends up employing an even unlikelier cohort in an attempt to crack a decades old cold case. Lisbeth Salander, a socially-inept, uncompromising, badass hacker is enlisted and uses her skills in conjunction with Mickael's to get to the bottom of the mystery. It's impossible to go too far beyond that without giving away some fairly spoilery details.
Although the book is nearly 600 pages long, I could hardly put it down and finished it off in only a couple of weeks. The first 30 or 40 pages were a bit rough to get through, so don't be deterred. The first chapter revolves around Swedish financial journalism and a case of libel... which, shockingly enough, didn't exactly have me chomping at the bit for more... Once you get past that, however, the novel jumps right

Larrson does a wonderful job building characters that you truly care about. They mystery is the basis for the book, but it's also a captivating character piece. Mikael and Lisbeth come across as very real, very complex people that you feel like you truly know. Even the massive Vanger family is home to several fully-formed, individual, specific characters, each of whom serves a purpose. In spite of the sheer number of characters in the family, it's pretty easy to keep everyone straight (although admittedly, the family tree which was so handily provided was very helpful from time to time). The novel had me guessing from beginning to end and I really felt like I was along for the ride as Blomkvist and the captivatingly odd Lisbeth Salander try to crack the case. I'm a sucker for mysteries to begin with, and this one was a doozie. The pacing is excellent and even the most seemingly benign of scenes is written in such a way that you can't help but sit up and pay attention.
Although the book was completely enthralling basically from cover to cover, there were parts that were difficult to read simply based on the nature of the scenes. Some truly, truly horrible things happen and I cared enough about all the characters that I was horrified and anxious and nervous the whole time--henceforth with reading 200 pages in a sitting. If the book were made into a TV show, it would have the standard "some of this material may be disturbing--viewer discretion is advised" disclaimer. I wouldn't want anyone to shy away from the book for this reason, and I don't think it's really necessary, but you should know what you're getting into.
I'm not as well versed in reviewing books in the same capacity that I would TV, so you'll just have to bear with me on this. I'd definitely recommend The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and I definitely plan to read the two follow-up novels. (The author actually died a few ye

And if that wasn't enough of an incentive, there's a fair amount of Swedish references as well, so really, who could resist? (Seriously though, the place names meant absolutely nothing to me, but fortunately most of the human names were pretty normal.)
I was actually going to discuss several of the books I've read recently in this post (including the superb Water for Elephants and the fun, English-y, quirky The Eyre Affair), but I think this sucker is sufficiently long as it is. Without any new TV premieres to look forward to and various shows headed for winter break, I think I'll save those for a rainy day.
1 comment:
So, I know this is going to sound crazy to the rest of the world, but whenever you say "vampire series" now, I actually have to think about which vampire series you mean...
And that's just sad!
Only at the IRB. Can we be any weirder?
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