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Dragon TattooFollow

#1 Jan 25 2011 at 3:42 PM Rating: Excellent
Everyone and their brother has been telling me I have to read these Dragon Tattoo books. So I finally bought them and settled down to be amazed. What decided me was my sister-in-law, who I consider a pretty smart lady, telling me that she was sad that she couldn’t read any more of the Tattoo books since Stieg Larsson was dead.

So I start the first book. I pushed through the first 75 or so pages, bored almost to tears, and the book finally got a little interesting. My favorite book in the series… but I’m not sure that’s saying much, really.

I start the second book, a little excited, since Salander broke out of her shell a little and decided she was in love with Blomkvist, only to be hurt by his ongoing affair with Berger. I got more and more frustrated as the most interesting character, Lisbeth, was MIA in two thirds of the damn book. And the ending… well let’s just say if I didn’t have the third book readily available, I probably would’ve found Stieg Larsson’s dead body and put a cap in his *** for good measure. The book wasn’t great, but it didn’t suck.

On to the third book. Technically, I haven’t finished it yet. I still have about 30 pages to go. And I feel like I am punishing myself for reading it.

In the course of these three books, I have come to realize a few things.

1. Stieg Larsson is impressed by people’s resumes and insists on putting them down on paper in his books. Honestly, I don’t give a **** what grammar school so-and-so went to. They work for the SIS now? Great. That’s all I need to know.

2. Stieg Larsson thinks that a person’s grocery list is integral to plot progression.

3. People in Sweden love something called “Billy’s Pan Pizza.”

4. All of the men in Sweden fall into two catagoris: (a) men who are the paragon of all that is good and right in the world, and (b) misogynist pigs who like to use the word ***** to describe every woman who crosses them.

5. Every woman wants to sleep with Mikael Blomkvist.

Seriously, these books are not something I’d recommend to anyone I liked.
#2 Jan 25 2011 at 5:31 PM Rating: Excellent
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The only answer is to find your sister-in-law, and beat her with Stieg Larssons' dead body.
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#3 Jan 25 2011 at 5:32 PM Rating: Decent
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4. All of the men in Sweden fall into two catagoris: (a) men who are the paragon of all that is good and right in the world, and (b) misogynist pigs who like to use the word ***** to describe every woman who crosses them.
Just in sweden? Smiley: dubious
#4 Jan 25 2011 at 7:04 PM Rating: Decent
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Didn't read the books but I liked the movies.
#5 Jan 25 2011 at 7:48 PM Rating: Good
feelz wrote:
Didn't read the books but I liked the movies.


I have a feeling that this will be one of the rare cases of "the movie is better than the book."
#6 Jan 26 2011 at 4:14 AM Rating: Good
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From your description it's more like the movie can't be worse than the book.
#7 Jan 26 2011 at 11:27 AM Rating: Good
His Excellency Aethien wrote:
From your description it's more like the movie can't be worse than the book.


A much better way to put it, thank you!
#8 Jan 27 2011 at 7:50 AM Rating: Good
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I thought the first one was OK. Not something so great that I'd really recommend it to anyone, though.
#9 Jan 27 2011 at 4:52 PM Rating: Good
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Heh. I really liked the books. I got the first 2 for Christmas presents and finished both by New Year's Eve. So of course on New Year's Day, I had to wake Ray's *** up early and had him take me to Wal-Mart to get the 3rd book because I didn't want to wait for it to be published in paperback (and I never buy hardcover).

Some of it did tend to plod along. But I still enjoyed the plot. And the idea of a tiny girl kicking *** just really appealed to me.

Oh, and since Daniel Craig signed on to play Blomkvist, I'm definately planning to watch the US movies of these books.

Edited, Jan 27th 2011 2:53pm by Thumbelyna
#10 Jan 27 2011 at 9:32 PM Rating: Excellent
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I watched the two first movies subtitled, and while they weren't bad, they in no way inspired me to read the books.
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#11 Jan 27 2011 at 9:40 PM Rating: Default
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Thumbelyna Quick Hands wrote:
I didn't want to wait for it to be published in paperback (and I never buy hardcover).
What other options are there? Braile books?

Dread Lörd Kaolian wrote:
I watched the two first movies subtitled, and while they weren't bad, they in no way inspired me to read the books.
No movie will ever inspire me to read a book because I'll become bored and skip half the book since I already know the plot. Just seeing a movie sucks a lot of motivation out of me to even read something. I need to actually make an effort to read the book first if I want to read and see the story.

Edited, Jan 27th 2011 9:44pm by xypin
#12 Jan 27 2011 at 9:46 PM Rating: Excellent
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xypin wrote:
Thumbelyna Quick Hands wrote:
I didn't want to wait for it to be published in paperback (and I never buy hardcover).
What other options are there? Braile books?
I think the point was that she never buys hardcover books, but liked these so much that she had to run out and buy the HC of the third.

I'll accept the possibility that your reading comprehension didn't completely fail you, and you decided to ignore it just to make a lame joke. So, possible partial whoosh incoming, I suppose.
#13 Jan 28 2011 at 12:04 AM Rating: Decent
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Spoonless the Silent wrote:
xypin wrote:
Thumbelyna Quick Hands wrote:
I didn't want to wait for it to be published in paperback (and I never buy hardcover).
What other options are there? Braile books?
I think the point was that she never buys hardcover books, but liked these so much that she had to run out and buy the HC of the third.

I'll accept the possibility that your reading comprehension didn't completely fail you, and you decided to ignore it just to make a lame joke. So, possible partial whoosh incoming, I suppose.
WOOOSH.


...but no, seriously, I really was confused. I thought there was some third book-format option besides hardcover and paperback that I was missing because I'm retarded like that and braile was the only thing to come to mind. I blame Thumb for poorly wording her statement!


Because I almost feel some sort of emotion for derailing the thread, I'll say something on topic. I read the first book and thought it was interesting. It was better than the OP claims, but I have no plans on buying the second and third book. In the end, I had wished the book focused more on Lisbeth than Mikael. Since I've read the first book, next on the list is to watch the Swedish movies with subs.
#14 Jan 29 2011 at 9:52 AM Rating: Good
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xypin wrote:
I blame Thumb for poorly wording her statement!
If she had italicized "never," perhaps it would have been more clear.
#15 Jan 30 2011 at 1:00 AM Rating: Excellent
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xypin wrote:
No movie will ever inspire me to read a book because I'll become bored and skip half the book since I already know the plot. Just seeing a movie sucks a lot of motivation out of me to even read something. I need to actually make an effort to read the book first if I want to read and see the story.


I like to read, but I have a problem with reading too fast and running out of books available. so if I see a movie and it has books, i'll usually go read them too if the movie was in any way decent, opeating on the theory that the books are usually better than the movie. I know i am somewhat odd in that respect though.
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#16 Jan 30 2011 at 9:29 AM Rating: Good
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Dread Lörd Kaolian wrote:
xypin wrote:
No movie will ever inspire me to read a book because I'll become bored and skip half the book since I already know the plot. Just seeing a movie sucks a lot of motivation out of me to even read something. I need to actually make an effort to read the book first if I want to read and see the story.


I like to read, but I have a problem with reading too fast and running out of books available. so if I see a movie and it has books, i'll usually go read them too if the movie was in any way decent, opeating on the theory that the books are usually better than the movie. I know i am somewhat odd in that respect though.
I do this too, especially if there are secondary characters in the movie that are really interesting, but not given a lot of time to be fleshed out on-screen.

But then, I'll read books multiple times anyway. And not just the "Fine Literature" category of books. I'll read pulp detective novels multiple times as well.
#17 Jan 30 2011 at 12:35 PM Rating: Good
Spoonless the Silent wrote:
But then, I'll read books multiple times anyway. And not just the "Fine Literature" category of books. I'll read pulp detective novels multiple times as well.


This. Smiley: nod I re-read Stephen King all the time. And there are a number of fantasy novels I'll read and re-read. If it's a series, though, I'm sort of weird in that I have to read all of the books, or I feel bad for leaving the characters stuck and not able to finish out their story...

Ok, that's not sort of weird. It's very weird. Smiley: glare
#18 Jan 30 2011 at 3:45 PM Rating: Good
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Belkira the Tulip wrote:
Ok, that's not sort of weird. It's very weird. Smiley: glare
Makes perfect sense to me.
I wouldn't be able to just read one part of a series, nor start somewhere in the middle.
#19 Jan 30 2011 at 6:55 PM Rating: Excellent
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His Excellency Aethien wrote:
Belkira the Tulip wrote:
Ok, that's not sort of weird. It's very weird. Smiley: glare
Makes perfect sense to me.
I wouldn't be able to just read one part of a series, nor start somewhere in the middle.

I definitely can't start in the middle if I'm re-reading a series. The exception is that I could read Wizard and Glass without reading teh whole Dark Tower series again.
#20 Jan 31 2011 at 4:43 PM Rating: Good
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4. All of the men in Sweden fall into two catagoris: (a) men who are the paragon of all that is good and right in the world, and (b) misogynist pigs who like to use the word ***** to describe every woman who crosses them.


Part of the reason people like it, tbh. It's "nice" to have things in black and white.
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#21 Jan 31 2011 at 10:02 PM Rating: Good
Timelordwho wrote:
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4. All of the men in Sweden fall into two categories: (a) men who are the paragon of all that is good and right in the world, and (b) misogynist pigs who like to use the word ***** to describe every woman who crosses them.


Part of the reason people like it, tbh. It's "nice" to have things in black and white.


It's ridiculous. I like my characters complex like real people.

But I see why that appeals to the American reader. As a whole, we ain't too bright.
#22 Feb 01 2011 at 8:31 AM Rating: Excellent
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Belkira the Tulip wrote:
Timelordwho wrote:
Quote:
4. All of the men in Sweden fall into two categories: (a) men who are the paragon of all that is good and right in the world, and (b) misogynist pigs who like to use the word ***** to describe every woman who crosses them.


Part of the reason people like it, tbh. It's "nice" to have things in black and white.


It's ridiculous. I like my characters complex like real people.


Same. I find that I can't get absorbed in a story unless the characters have a more gritty, realistic base to them. Anything else takes me out of it; it makes me very conscious of the fact that what I'm reading is fiction, and I stop being invested in what takes place. I like shades of gray, not black and white.

Edited, Feb 1st 2011 9:33am by Eske
#23 Feb 07 2011 at 7:02 AM Rating: Good
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The problem if you have a problem with the books is that the star of the series is really Swedish politics and crime, in particular the worming of WW2 war criminals into the fabric of Swedish society right up into the present day.

This was meant to be a ten book series, a fictionalisation of Larsson's research as a reporter, exposing real crime and corruption in Sweden, fictionalised probably so he could avoid law suits, probably also to make more money than a non-fiction series would make, and who knows, maybe he just felt the muse?

Lisbeth, Blomkvist, and everyone, are just emotional hooks to make you feel outrage over the based-on-reality crime and politics. If you aren't much into Sweden, WW2, and politics, then there will be too much filler for you. In which case the Swedish films are good on their own, since they have to strip the story right down. I personally really liked the first film, haven't seen the others, and have read 2 and half of the books.

It's going to be a matter of taste with the Swedish films. The first one is a mystery-action, but it's just not Hollywood. By Hollywood standards there's no action at all. The actress who played Lisbeth I found mesmerising. It was a fantastic portrait, even though the book Lisbeth has totally different racial features and is at least a foot shorter. (The book Lisbeth has native Nordic genes that by European standards give her a "Down's Syndrome" look, if you aren't thinking Arctic Circle "Fin", "Lap" "Eskimo", "Slavic", or "Japanese" looks. Book Lisbeth's Down's Syndrome appearance is one of the reasons she is so easily not listened to, disregarded, and institutionalised as a child.)

Edited, Feb 7th 2011 8:04am by Aripyanfar
#24 Feb 07 2011 at 9:28 AM Rating: Good
Aripyanfar wrote:
This was meant to be a ten book series, a fictionalisation of Larsson's research as a reporter, exposing real crime and corruption in Sweden, fictionalised probably so he could avoid law suits, probably also to make more money than a non-fiction series would make, and who knows, maybe he just felt the muse?


He also apparently wanted to see himself as a huge ladies man. (I'm assuming he saw himself as Blomkvist, since he's the investigative journalist in the books.)

Aripyanfar wrote:
Lisbeth, Blomkvist, and everyone, are just emotional hooks to make you feel outrage over the based-on-reality crime and politics.


Yeah, that didn't work. The characters just weren't that loveable.
#25 Feb 07 2011 at 11:56 AM Rating: Excellent
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I liked Lisbeth. Traumatised, locked up, abused, physically small, an unrecognised genius, she finally starts fighting back. It might not be the most healthy way to fight back, but then she hasn't been given the best education in life skills. She starts turning the tables on the men who have taken advantage of their legal positions of power over her; taking down four of them in more or less spectacular and horrid ways over the course of her formative years, in the early stages of her story.

In reality I'm all for the law to handle justice, but when the legal system breaks down, it's kinda satisfying for vigilante justice to triumph in fantasy land. It certainly makes for tense and cathartic drama visually.

Edited, Feb 7th 2011 12:58pm by Aripyanfar
#26 Feb 07 2011 at 1:31 PM Rating: Decent
Aripyanfar wrote:
I liked Lisbeth. Traumatised, locked up, abused, physically small, an unrecognised genius, she finally starts fighting back. It might not be the most healthy way to fight back, but then she hasn't been given the best education in life skills. She starts turning the tables on the men who have taken advantage of their legal positions of power over her; taking down four of them in more or less spectacular and horrid ways over the course of her formative years, in the early stages of her story.

In reality I'm all for the law to handle justice, but when the legal system breaks down, it's kinda satisfying for vigilante justice to triumph in fantasy land. It certainly makes for tense and cathartic drama visually.


I liked her, too. Unfortunately, Larsson wasn't sure how to handle her, so he left her out of the books too much, or stuck her in a hospital bed/ jail cell where he didn't have to fool with her.
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