Tag Archives: Stieg Larsson

The Bloggerhood of the Traveling Book Blog Tour begins

Posted on November 29, 2010 | 17 Comments

Graphic by 00dozo

 

Welcome to the Bloggerhood of the Traveling Book Blog Tour, which will be happening all this week Monday through Friday and maybe even Saturday. We (Unfinished Person AND Unfinished Rambler) and four other bloggers are going to be discussing the second part of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire. How this started was we sent the book to Quirky of Quirkyloon, then she sent it to Boom Boom Larew of How To Become A Cat Lady…Without The Cats, then Boom Boom sent it to Nonamedufus and then Nonamedufus sent it to 00dozo of When I Reach. All of this was chronicled by Nonamedufus in his epic “The Bloggerhood of The Traveling Book” post/song parody sung to the tune of Gilligan’s Island. And then, and then I thought it might be a neat idea for all of us to discuss the book on a blog tour, which is where we are now. The order will go from Monday through Friday in the order the book was sent. In other words, Quirky will be next and so on and so forth.

Originally, both of us, Unfinished Person and Unfinished Rambler, suggested we use a series of questions from Random House to help get us started in our discussion, but then it was decided that we each would go our own way. However, since we are doing this on the fly and without much preparation, we are still going to do it with the questions to kickstart the discussion.

I will first have Unfinished Rambler answer the questions and then Unfinished Person to provide counterpoint.

1. Discuss the prologue. What did you think was going on? At what point did you fully understand it?

UR: I had no idea what the hell the prologue was about and I still don’t.

UP: From the start, I thought it was one person, but then later I realized that’s not who it was at all. Now that I think about it, I finally get who it was who was doing the torturing.

2.Discuss gender politics as they affect the plot: the treatment of Salander, Erika Berger, Miriam Wu, and Sonja Modig and the trafficking of Eastern European women. What do you think Larsson was trying to say about the role of women in society?

UR: I don’t think Stieg Larsson really was a man based on his views expressed in the book. I think he was a typical…if there can be such a thing…Swedish protofeminist…one of the worst kind.

UP: I do think that Larsson has a pretty high view of women, in that they should be strong and independent like the protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, and the other primary female characters, Erika Berger and Miriam Wu, in the novel. Personally, I like my women strong — and, no, not like my coffee, black. :)

3. When newspaper articles begin to appear featuring interviews with long-ago acquaintances of Salander, did it change your perception of her character? Discuss the nature of truth in these instances: Is it possible both sides were remembering accurately?

UR: No, I still thought she was a bitch. Yes, it is possible both sides were remembering that she was a bitch quite accurately.

UP: No, it didn’t really make me change my perception of her because, to a degree, she was all of those things described: bisexual, psychotic, criminal. However, the reasons why she was that way were never explored in the articles.

4. In what ways is Salander like her father and half brother? In what ways is she different?

UR: She’s sadomasochistic just like they are.

UP: Salander is like her father and half brother in that she is very single-minded, in relentlessly pursuing one thing, for years. However, she has something they don’t seem to possess: a heart.

5. If Stieg Larsson were still alive, what one question would you most like to ask him?

UR: What kind of drugs were you on when you wrote this pile of horse manure? ;)

UP: Herr Larsson, what kind of drugs were you on when you wrote this brilliantly-conceived page-turner? Where do I get them? Are they only available in Sweden? Damn. I wish I had some of them.

Er, yeah, in case you missed it, both UP and UR enjoyed this book and highly recommend it if you enjoy a brilliantly-conceived page-turner. If you don’t, well, then your loss, loser. :P

Tune in tomorrow for Part II of The Bloggerhood of the Traveling Book Blog Tour as it continues at Quirkyloon.

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Narrowing the gap between the number of books read and movies watched this year

Posted on November 17, 2010 | 5 Comments

The gap between the number of books I’ve read this year, 60, and the number of movies I’ve watched this year, 63, is narrowing. However, just when I think I’m about to even up things, along comes a movie that I just have to see, and not helping is Netflix Instant Queue where movies like this are available:

On the flip side, though, what is helping is books adapted into movies. Recently I read The Taking of Pelham One Two Three by John Godey and then compared and contrasted the two movies (1974 and 2009) with the book and each other. My wife and I also watched the movie Winter’s Bone and then read the book of the same name by Daniel Woodrell from which the movie was adapted. On Monday night, I watched The Girl Who Played With Fire, which of course is the second in the Millenium trilogy by Swedish author Stieg Larsson and also will be the subject of a Bloggerhood of the Traveling Book Blog Tour at the end of this month, featuring mwah (and Unfinished Rambler) and a handful of other bloggers.

Lest you think, though, that everything I watch is literary, let me dispel that notion right now with this trailer, with which I will leave you (even in German, you still get the gist):

Don’t laugh, but my wife and I thought it was pretty good, for what it was: basically a video game movie.

Note: Some movies I watch with my wife; others like Mongol I watch by myself.

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The best books I’ve read and movies I’ve watched this year thus far

Posted on October 20, 2010 | 5 Comments

Right now it’s neck and neck between the number of books I’ve read this year, 53, with the number of movies I’ve watched this year, 55. It looks like I’ll easily surpass last year’s numbers of 54 for books and 53 for movies. To see a list of the books I’ve read and movies I’ve watched, click here (with a link to my listography list of movies watched this year at the bottom of that page and trailers for all the movies on the listography list).

To learn how to order the book from Bancroft Book, click on the cover.

Among the best books I’ve read within the last few months have been Purple Jesus by Ron Cooper, which I reviewed last week and also coincidentally was released last week, Godric by Frederick Buechner and The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson.

Far and away, though, my favorite book  of this year (so far) was Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Also extremely good was Memory by Donald E. Westlake, a novel from the 1960s that previously had been rejected by publishers but thankfully was published this year.

As for movies, from back in March, since the American version recently was released, I have to mention the original Swedish version, Let The Right One In:

(Note: Just playing the trailer now, with its creepy music, made my cat, who is sitting on my arm as I type this, jump up.)

Forget all other vampire movies. This one sets the bar high for all other vampire movies, period.

From September, I also have to mention this one:

because, well, it just rocks, period.

And last, but not least, I’ll throw in this one, which The Wife and I just watched the other night:

Fun for the whole family? You betcha. Plus some kick-ass graphics, to boot.

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A quick look back at my reading in September

Posted on September 29, 2010 | 3 Comments

My goal this month was to read five books and, lo and behold, as if this is a big surprise, I made it.

The five books were:

  1. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
  2. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
  3. Purple Jesus by Ron Cooper
  4. What’s The Worst That Could Happen? by Donald E. Westlake
  5. Between A Wok And A Hard Place by Tamar Myers

The first two were the end of trilogies; the last two, continuation of a series; and the third, a stand-alone novel by an independent author. The Ron Cooper novel also was an advanced reader’s copy to which I invited to read by J.C. Montgomery of The Biblio Blogazine in a Goodreads discussion group. I’ve finished the book, but the discussion group is still going, so I’m holding off on the review, possibly next week.

The last one was a part of the Pennsylvania-Dutch Mystery with Recipes series by Tamar Myers, and was one of several a patron at the library where I work donated for our library book sale, but said I could read first if I wanted. I mentioned to her in passing that I enjoyed this series by Myers, and then a few weeks later, she brought in almost all of the series, excluding a few of the last ones.

Tomorrow, I give a review of my most popular posts this month, not that I had much from which to choose, with only 16 posts, but I’ll still give you a review.

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Planning the kind of September where life is slow and oh, so mellow

Posted on September 1, 2010 | 10 Comments

My goal for last month was to read 14 books, with me actually making it to five. This month, my goal is to read five books, four of which I’m looking to finish by month’s end, including two of which I’ve already started.

Cover of serial,

Image via Wikipedia

The one, which I’m not going to finish is Bleak House by Charles Dickens, which I’m reading as part of a read-along with Amanda over at The Zen Leaf. By today or at least the end of this week, the goal was to have read through Chapter 13. We were to have read through Chapter 7 by last Wednesday or later in the week. I am only on Chapter 5 now. I hope by Friday to be through Chapter 13 and put up a post about my reading of it so far.

The other four books are:

Cover of

Cover of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

  1. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson, which I’ve already started reading.
  2. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, which I hope to get at the library tonight. I am next on the hold list and the first one on that list was the library director, so she knows I really, really want it.
  3. Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie, which I’ll be reading for the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge.
  4. What’s The Worst That Could Happen? by Donald E. Westlake, which I’m reading as part of my own personal challenge to read all the Dortmunder novels by Westlake.

Beyond that, who knows? All I do know is that the plan is to read mostly, although not exclusively (because of the aforementioned Agatha Christie Reading Challenge in which I participate), from the books on the bookcase in my office as outlined last month.

Last but not least, speaking of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, this month Agatha Christie would have been 100 years old on Sept. 15, if she still were alive. In celebration of that, the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Carnival is having a blog carnival tour all month, starting today and running through Sept. 30 (click on link for full schedule). This blog will be one of the stops on the tour on Thursday, Sept. 9,  with me as your host for that day. I hope you’ll stop by here and the other blogs along the way.

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