Monthly Archives: July 2012

I actually think I kind of started this blog to talk about the Millennium Series, which I just finished reading. (Okay, also to narcissistically ramble about myself, but lets put that aside for a moment.) I don’t know why I started reading it, I don’t tend to read thrillers or mysteries or whatever it is that you would categorise ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ and its sequels as. It was just a case of Kindle magic (I’ll ramble to you about how much I adore, ADORE, my kindle later) happening, but nonetheless, I started reading them somehow, and spent the whole week totally engrossed and ignoring everything else.

Did you like Rooney or Noomi as Lisbeth best? I can’t decide. Here’s some boobs.

I guess there are a bunch of muddled reasons as to why I enjoyed the series so much. Of course, number one is undoubtedly Lisbeth Salander. Have you read the series? Do you get the impression that Steig Larsson started writing GWTDT and that Salander just kind of developed a life of her own? She’s the kind of character that would do that.

I don’t know why, seeing as Lisbeth is one of the most prickly, awkward, difficult characters that exists, but I adored her. I love people who are just themselves, who can’t help but be them, even to their own detriment. I identify with them so much, because I am that way myself. Lisbeth isn’t a real person, I know that (let’s talk more later about the way I think about my favourite characters in my head as being real…) but she is just herself, even though being the way she is is often the cause of her problems.  I also love to see a mainstream fiction character that looks like I do, and by that I mean that she stands outside societies’ conventions. It’s not just that she has tattoos and piercings, but that she isn’t what I like to call a ‘proper girl’ (not saying that females who look and dress ‘conventionally’ are the proper girls, it’s merely an expression…), she dresses oddly and doesn’t particularly care what other people think about how she looks. (Plus, yeah, it’s nice to see another girl with a dragon tattoo out there – see, that’s some of that afore-mentioned narcissism for you.) I enjoy that she is small (in the books she’s described as 4’11″, one whole inch shorter than me) but physically tough. She takes on those bikers and Niederman, and holds her own. Obviously I am not an amazing hacker, nor do I have a psychotic Soviet defector for a father, but I did identify with Lisbeth. She’s an outsider, I’m one too.

Fewer boobs, same attitude.

I enjoyed almost all of the characters, not just Lisbeth. I loved that each character had their flaws and their little idiosyncrasies. I liked Blomkvist with his habit of falling into bed with everyone. I admired his dogged determination to get shit done, bust shit open and reveal the truth. I really liked Berger – she was described as a strong and in control woman, but she was also vulnerable and had her moments of doubt. I liked that she had those doubts, but that didn’t stop her from kicking ass all over the place. I liked that she was in an unconventional relationship – married to a bisexual man who knew that Blomkvist was her lover, and she was happy with it. It worked for her and she had no moral hangups about it. She was who she was an made no apologies. I actually enjoyed the sexuality of all the leading women in the series. They owned their desires. There wasn’t any shame. (Because, fuck shame.)

I really dug on the pace of the books. I often felt carried along by the narrative and I love it when that happens. I read fast, and I like it when a book keeps up with me. It’s like being on rapids, just flowing and tumbling and getting thrown around by the big, dramatic scenes.

I’m always really sad when a book or series comes to an end. I…miss them? The characters, I mean. I guess that’s why I re-read so often (remind me to write stuff about re-reading – I’m an expert). I like visiting my favourite characters again, because I am obviously crazy and a giant geek.

While I was reading this I drank a lot of coffee, which is pretty normal for me. I’d start in the morning with the Grinders Brazil-style Espresso Blend, but them move on to decaf, because while I like coffee, I also like not having panic attacks. At the moment I’m drinking Global Cafe Direct Organic Decaf and it is pretty damn good. You know, for decaf, ha! It helped that in the series, everyone drank coffee constantly and also for some reason, they ate pretty much nothing but sandwiches. I guess it’s a swedish thing, but it made me want to go out and buy some fresh white and some Herrgårdsost. Also, Lingonberries, though I have not the faintest idea what they are or what they would taste like.