I finally . . . finally finished reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It deserves two finalies because I didn’t think I’d ever get through the last hundred pages. I’ve read leisurely novels before, but this one was more like plodding through all seasons in Sweden, mostly sodden spring countryside. I liked the novel, but I think I may have liked it more if I hadn’t first seen the movie. The movie was able to cut through much of the detailed activities of Blomkvist and Salander. The book kept track of every single thought and motion Blomkvist made. Didn’t matter how little I needed to know some of the background information about the multitude of characters, mostly Vangers, I got it anyway. Didn’t matter if I didn’t need to know about everything Blomkvist ate or drank, I got it anyway. The style of the writer/translator was somewhat awkward because it often sounded like what a translator would say, someone not totally familiar with English idioms. One such example of many: “He could not look her in the eyes.” Just a little thing, but any native speaker of English would say, “look her in the eye.” But now I’m nitpicking. As I said, I liked the book, and I’ll find the next two and read them. But I’ll be hoping they’re not as long or as unnecessarily detailed as Dragon Tattoo. Oh, yes, and another thing about The Girl, several people have told me they thought the Swedish version of the movie was better than the American. I don't see how that's possible, but I'll go to Netflix and and check it out.
Charlie update. We’re both almost positive Charlie isn’t a cat. We think he’s half dog, half human. And he’s so very, very self-assured. He’s been with us for two and a half months now. In that time, he’s completely taken over the house and us. He owns us, not the other way around. As Garfield says, “Nobody owns a cat.” Have you ever seen greener eyes?
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