Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Just laid hands on the Larsson trilogy, by the way. A couple of thousand pages or more, I think. I'm at fifty-some pages into The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and am bored to bloody tears.

How interesting. I liked it a lot. Granted, I don't read that genre of fiction a great deal, but it held my attention easily, and I enjoyed reading it. Checking, I find I gave it 9/10 — I've only given 9/10 to ten of the ninety books I've read this year. (& only one 10/10.)

Whether there are technical problems with the writing or plotting I've no idea. If there are, I didn't notice them, but then, I'm not a professional editor or writer. From this reader's point of view, the book worked well.

I would suggest that there must be something in it that you're missing so far. I can't believe it's just luck that it's been in the Amazon top 100 books for over a year (currently at #3), and that the trilogy currently make up three of the top five in the top 100 books. Or that of the 1250+ reviews, over 70% five it four or five stars.

But one thing being on mobileread has taught me well is that there are a vast range of readers who like a vast range of different kinds of books. Perhaps these are just not for you.

[recluse]

I read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and didn't like it at all. I find this happens often when I read bestsellers. But looking at the other books on Amazon's Top 100, I realize that it's not my lack of refined taste. I sometimes wonder if the people who are choosing the bestsellers are the same ones deciding what is a hit TV show. Better writers and better books come and go without notice. I'ed rather spend the countless hours wading through the mountains of subliterate dreck for that one gem than accept a book recommendation from the bestseller list that everyone is fawning over because they don't have the guts to admit that the list was composed by a pack of illiterate, bribe taking gibbons. My apologies to any gibbons who are MR members.

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

How interesting. I liked it a lot. Granted, I don't read that genre of fiction a great deal, but it held my attention easily, and I enjoyed reading it. Checking, I find I gave it 9/10 — I've only given 9/10 to ten of the ninety books I've read this year. (& only one 10/10.)

I'm with you on this one pdurrant. I've read the first two and liked both and am about a third of the way through the last one and like it better than the first two.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Well - I finished "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" last night - and said "WTF" - pardon my language.

Spoiler:

After grinding on for hundreds of pages, Pippi Longstocking morphs into Jane Bond in the last 20 pages, brings down a global corporation, and loses her boyfriend. The murder mystery is jettisoned. Go back and re-read the first chapter - a great set-up with the flowers & the detective -- that gets forgotten. Our hero publishes a Pulitzer-winning article AND writes a book AND drops his anorexic girlfriend. Huh?

Spoiler:

I haven't read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but the idea of an ordinary person morphing into someone of extraordinary courage and fortitude one stroke before midnight isn't a bad plot device if done right. Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor underwent a wonderful last minute transformation in the original Terminator movie, but there was a reason: her lover and protector from the future was incapacitated and she had no other choice. Still, she didn't transform into James Bond; just an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances at the end of her rope who drew upon inner resources she never knew were there.

From the way you describe the gaping plot holes, I don't see where I'll be picking this one up anytime soon.

[jgaiser]

Re:The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo..

I'll add that I enjoyed the story too. Different strokes for different folks.

[crc]

Over the last week, I've read: Encephalopath, Evoguia, Robin, and Verdant Skies by Steve Jordan; Serpent and Blue Gold by Clive Cussler.

I'm currently 2/3 through The Second Coming by David H. Burton and expect to finish it tonight.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

***The tense you are requiring is "wrote", Neil. Mr. Larsson died a few years ago***

Sorry, Monts, in review a writer *writes* no matter how long he has been dead. N

Oh, good. There's still plenty of time for me to get started then.

Cheers,
Marc

[lilac_jive]

It took me forever to read "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." I ended out giving it four stars, it wasn't for me the thrill that most seem to get out of it, but it was good enough. I've been debating on picking up the rest of the trilogy.


Now I'm reading "This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All," which, obviously, I got from the library. On the cover the cartoon librarian is holding an ereader, which I found to be charming.

[Helen Smith]

I got about 2/3 of the way through American Wife by Curtis Sittenfield and I have put it aside for now. The book started well and it's well-written with unshowy prose but I wouldn't want to be stuck with the narrator at a party. I'd have preferred to read a short book about the narrator's grandmother.

I have picked up Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips and The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien.

I started Regression by Karen Bell - it's a time travel book and so far I'm gripped by the story. It's a short(ish) book but even so it seems ridiculously cheap at 93 cents on Amazon.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I checked it (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) out from the library, read the first few pages and then picked up something else. I've not been back yet....

I really can't vouch for it either way at this point.....

I read the first 50 or so pages as well, wasn't crazy about the writing style and couldn't get into the story. I don't think I'll be picking it up again.

[FlorenceArt]

Well, I am now at page 22 of Les hommes qui n'aimaient pas les femmes (French version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and engrossed in the story of how the journalist bought his apartment. Not a very promising beginning, and the (predictably) awkward French translation doesn't help. I'll give it a few more pages.

[BenG]

I just finished Flashman and the Angel of the Lord by George MacDonald Fraser on audio. A great book like all the Flashman series. The "Angel" is the abolitionist John Brown (whose body lies a-moulderin' in the grave).

I'm still reading The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. I'm liking it a lot so far.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by BenG

I just finished Flashman and the Angel of the Lord by George MacDonald Fraser on audio. A great book like all the Flashman series. The "Angel" the abolitionist John Brown (whose body lies a-moulderin' in the grave).

I'm still reading The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. I'm liking it a lot so far.

The whole Flashman series is a delight (although, that particular one wasn't one of my favourites).

Just out if interest, who read the audio version?

[Scott Nicholson]

Just finished the excellent dark fantasy historical novel 33 AD--vampires in the time of Jesus--and now reading David H. Burton's dark fantasy The Second Coming.

Scott

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

The whole Flashman series is a delight (although, that particular one wasn't one of my favourites).

Just out if interest, who read the audio version?

Timothy West