So I read the bloody Dragon Tattoo book...

[TrillianAstra]

And I really think they would have been edited much more harshly (and been better books) if he had been alive.

[mumatron]

that is one hard book to read.

i don't think i've ever read sandwiches described so often.

the story itself was fine but it just irritated me for some reason.

[mo3d]

Do you mean The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

I don't remember sandwiches. Lots of coffee drinking, no sarnies

[moronicatatonic]

If you're interested in politics they are fantastic books. If not, maybe you want an abridged version.

[ChickensHaveNoEyebrows]

I thought it was massively over hyped. Not a fan.

[MayDayChild]

Loved them! But i am a crime fiend and I work in magazines so it all rang true for me!
But some of my book club disliked them enormously.

[mumatron]

he made coffee, he ate a sandwich.

they had sex, they had a sandwich.

you know a book is waffling on when you can skip 2-3 pages and you haven't missed anything.

I never bothered with the rest of the books.

[PacificDogwood]

Agree, could have been edited a lot bit tighter.
But still loved it.
And the other 2 of the trilogie pick up the pace a fair bit.

[TrillianAstra]

I liked the crime story.

I did not need to know that it was liver pate open sandwiches with pickles.

Nor did I need to know the processor power of the laptop she needed to buy, or the word processing program that he chose to keep his notes on.

[mo3d]

We read it in our book club. I hated it at first, but was told to keep going past the 1st 100 pages. Glad I did

[coffeeinbed]

I gave it a try. I did. But all that stuff with the boxer friend and so on made me want to throw them across the room.
Sorry, over hyped and over written.

[coffeeinbed]

And clumsily translated.

[mo3d]

I can't believe I don't remember the eating! I was obviously never hungry when I read the book

[TrillianAstra]

Here's the thing, and maybe this bit should be in Feminism rather than Adult Fiction.

When sex is coerced or abusive, we gets lots of detail. Fair enough, it's an important part of the story, I'm an adult and I can deal with it.

But when two people who quite like each other have sex because they want to have sex, it barely registers. It's all glossed over. They woke up in bed together more than once before it was made clear that they had kissed, let alone actually shagged. For a bit I thought that he had gone to bed injured and she (in her not-regarding-social-norms way) had just joined him because it was more comfy than the sofa.

Be consistent!

[Pan]

But Trills, it wasn't a romantic novel - the series is about nasty politics, murder and corruption.

If you see the film (swedish one) the sex scene is really funny. She climbs on him, orgasms, and climbs off and goes back to her own bed. He's left lying there with a WTF look on his face.

[moronicatatonic]

Just watch the Hollywood versions of the films. They'll be all sex and gore, certainly none of the (very interesting) politics.

[Pan]

yes, moronic, it was mentioned in the FS a while ago - the advert poster has Salander in the nude with Blomqvist behing her with a protective arm across her tits. So not Salander.

[pamplemousse]

The end really annoyed me. When you found out who dunnit, and then it dragged on with endless emails to read.
Agree about the laptop spec and variety of sandwich being annoying.
Have no momentum left to read the other two, shall I bother?

[TrillianAstra]

That sounds awesome, if unlikely (she obviously orgasms easily!).

[Pan]

pample - the techy stuff gets dropped in the later books (pretty much only what you have to know) and the national corruption element takes off. You also find out much more about Salander and her resourcefulness.

[TheGrassIsJewelled]

They drink a lot of coffee in the trilogy. Someone is always putting a brew on!

[TrillianAstra]

Do they get better then?

I'd really like to read a book where a woman and a man are thrown together to fight crime or reveal a conspiracy or run for their lives and they do not have sex or kiss or flirt or fall in love. One where they can just be two people. That would be nice.

www.theyfightcrime.org/

[TrillianAstra]

So much coffee!

[Pan]

Trills - they get immeasureably better. Hint though - if you do stick with them, make sure you have both bks 2 and 3 with you. The end of the second one leaves you wanting to turn the next page immediately!

[PacificDogwood]

Yy, they get much better and easier to read.

I agree re how addictive they are (if you make it through the first one ): I ordered nr 2 and 3 in another language just so I could keep going .

[TrillianAstra]

I am Kindlified so no problem having 2 and 3. Thanks for the tip.

I am switching genre entirely and reading [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Diary-Princess-Antoinette-ebook/dp/B004R1Q9PI?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 this]] next, it's written by MmeGuillotine.