Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Friday, March 18, 2011

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Lots to say, not enough time to say it.

Thought I'd carve out a little time for a book review. Considering that I don't finish a lot of books these days and the lack of writing overall I've been doing I thought I'd do up something quick on the topic.

I finished "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" last night. You've probably heard of it. It's a murder mystery with a lot going on for it. Written by the late Stieg Larsson it's already an international bestseller, seen one set of movies made about the trilogy and has another trilogy coming up by David Fincher. The protagonists, such as they are, are Mikael Blomkvist, a finance reporter, and Lizbeth Salander a PI/hacker of considerable talent. While there's certainly a lot to roll your eyes about, possibly because the novel was written in swedish, possibly because it tries pretty hard to impress the reader with descriptions of the "bleeding edge" tech from 2004, the story is well crafted and Lizbeth especially I found to be an extremely endearing character.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

No Smoking

I have always had a bizarre realationship with books. I love literature and writing. I feel a powerful compulsion to write things that can grip and hold the reader with vicelike fortitude. My problem lies in the dissapointment i feel when I cannot. I know the mood that takes me where I can write the words I want. But despite all this nonsense I do not read that much these days. Even when I was young I devoured novel after novel, all fantasy and childrens fiction but still... the past few years I have not taken in many books.

I don't know how I convinced myself that it would be a good idea to be a journalist with such a half-hearted relationship with literature but my newfound fascination with Hunter S. Thompson has kickstarted a fierce return to the world of classic books that I fell apart from for so many years. I'm running short on HST books but it's left me with a great bridge into Hemmingway, Joseph Conrad, Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Wolfe. You shouldn't write if you don't read and I have been too stubborn to learn from the greats for too long.

After all,

No Music
+
Bad TV
=
Bad Mood
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No Pages