[2010] What are you reading?

Just finished up The Girl Who Played with Fire. I agree with the general sentiment that the first was a better book, although I still enjoyed the sequel quite bit and found myself riveted until the very end. Part of the problem with this book was the sheer number of characters. The first book mostly played out from two characters' point of view with just a scant few chapters devoted to secondary characters. The Girl Who Played with Fire featured probably a dozen different points of view. Lisbeth Salander disappeared for a few hundred pages at one point. I'd like to think Larsson was introducing characters who have played a major role in his envisioned 10 book series. It makes me really sad that he died without being able to complete the whole series. The two books I read are pretty epic, but I think the whole series could have turned it into an epic masterpiece of genre fiction.

I read Larsson's pair of books too quickly and now find myself with an unintended weeklong gap before The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is released.

I'm reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell next. I've heard really good things about it, and the jacket cover certainly sounds interesting.

 

I read Map of Bones a few years ago and was not impressed. It seemed like a knock off of Dan Brown with really bad dialogue. Maybe I need to try something else of his.

 

I'm curious who's picking up The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest today. I've got mine ordered through Barnes and Noble with delivery scheduled tomorrow.

I'm stoked to crack that sucker open tomorrow night and stay up way too late reading.

 

We had a discussion about it a few pages back. If you like mystery\thrillers, this book should be right up your alley. It's genre fiction, but genre fiction at the top of its game. The two main characters are very memorable, particularly Lisbeth Salander. There seems to be universal agreement that the first is a classic and the second (while still quite good) wasn't up to the quality of the Dragon Tattoo. I read the first two lightning quick and had a really hard time putting them down.

Of course, the whole series is overshadowed by the fact the author died 3 books into a planned 10 book series. I imagine there were will be plenty of plot threads that don't get resolved, and characters introduced that will never get their fully envisioned part in the story.

I do have to warn that they are dark books. They deal with serial killers, rape, and prostitution. The original title of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was Men Who Hate Women.

 

Good call on that one.

I'd also recommend Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, which has a haunted, gothic feel to it. It's also one of my absolute favorite novels even if it's not a straight up monster horror novel.

Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch series is a good, humorous read that's kind of Office Space meets X-Files in a Russian Supernatural setting.

You could also try Robert McCammon's Matthew Corbett series, which is about the evolution of an American Sherlock Holmes. While it doesn't feature straight up monsters, it does feature Matthew going against some pretty ruthless and monstrous adverseries. McCammon wrote horror back in the 90's before taking a break from writing, but his latest work blows his older stuff away.

 

Maybe that's where I went wrong. I was being bugged to read it, and it's regarded as such a classic. It seemed like a good choice.

I've got Job: A Comedy of Justice by Heinlein as well, but I'm not in too big a hurry to pick it up.