So, I read 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'

shared oops.

I completely understand chickens. I did much prefer Lisbeth. I just didn't get that lady who shred Blomkvist with her DH either.

Do you think that if you like the character, then they resemble you Cote?

The only bit I found interesting about the books was the crime figures at the start of each chapter. Women in Sweeden have it rough . Read all three in one go and agree much of it was repeatative and could have been chopped.

Surely the suspense is there whether the character in mortal danger is the killer or the policeman. I don't get this need to like characters at all.

It is the plot and narration skills of the author that make you care about what happens next in a book. Not whether or not the main character resembles you, I would think.

Not you, Beatrice but Chickens said: "I just found it very hard to like the main male character".

I don't believe I said that you had to 'like' the character - if you are picking me up on my comments about Room, I said like in relation to the book.

I still feel that my connection comment is valid, certainly for me. That's the beauty of books, you can take what you want from them and your relationship with a book is never the same as another reader's.

So you don't read serial killer books then chickens?

Ah, "feel a character is real" is not the same thing as "like him" or even "have a connection with him".

Of course, I agree that characters should feel real. I think Blomkvist felt real. If anything, Lisbeth was a stretch - martial arts expert, computer genius, and bisexual. As a whole, though, these books were believable.

What set these books apart from other crime novels was the realism. It starts out as a murder investigation and solves a completely different crime. It starts with a hundred characters and suspects, and clues are very slowly gathered, some of which turn out to be false. All felt authentic, and not as some author spinning a tale where things fall in place at the right time, bad guy gets caught and guy gets girl etc.

I don't mind if I don't like the characters, I just have to feel that they are real ( I don't know 3D in these days terms?). I would think that this differs depending on who's reading the book though.

I read anything and everything and always persevere with a book, so don't think that I would miss out.

He is a bit of a chauvinist and a cynic. I wouldn't call him any man's fantasy, especially in the way he gets beaten up and saved by a young girl. He does appear to be a good journalist, though.

It has never occurred to me before that people might not like a book if they don't like the characters. Thinking back at some very good books I have read with complicated and rather unlovable characters, I dare say that you are missing out on a lot of interesting books.

It does give you a chance to identify with Blomkvist and see what a cad (for want of a better word) he is.

I think that this is meant to give you greater appreciation for his relationship and treatment with/of Lisbeth.

But Lizbeth comes late to the book & is on the periphery of the 1st..not too much to engage with, iyswim, but it's a means into her character, developed in the next two.

at reading people like myself.

I read it last year, I thought it was an easy read and ok I guess, but not the most amazing book ever - it reminded me a bit of The Davini Code, in the way it's kind of trying to be clever but really it's a just a bit silly

I thought you were supposed to like Lisbeth, that Blomkvist is a sidekick I suppose.

A connection doesn't mean that you empathise with them or feel as one with them.

You should be scared or horrified of psychopaths, sympathise with victims and so on, but you should feel some kind of connection with the characters.

I think that a good author captures you with the storyline and therefore the characters. It is only my opinion though.

You have to believe in the character otherwise you can't picture them and their circumstances and feel involved in the book.

Lizbeth is at the forefront on the next two books, she becomes the principal character & the books definitely benefit from that.

Also, if you insist on "having a connection" with main characters, you will end up only reading about people like yourself.

No, you don't. Otherwise, nobody but psychopaths would read books about serial killers, not to mention those like J. G. Ballard's "The Atrocity Exhibition" or Burroughs' "Naked Lunch".

I think you have to have a connection with the characters in a book, to like the book. Whether this means 'liking' the characters or not is another thing.

Do you have to read the Jo Nesbo books in order? I have them on my kindle to read.

I agree the first half of Room was better than the second. It was readable, I liked the child's narrative, just thought it was a bit meh at the end.

Why do you have to try and like the characters in a book? Honest question.