Thursday, February 9, 2012

Book #2: The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson

Well, the day has finally come! Despite the start of the new semester and being in the throes of coaching my first speech season, I can now cross off my second book of the challenge. It feels so good to know that it is possible to find time for recreational reading during such a busy time in my life.

The second book on my 2012 list is a natural progression from book #1.


I have to say, it turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment. This series is very technical (which is fine, since that is the very nature of the genre), but at times, there is an unnecessary amount of detail. While I will concede to the fact that the overall story of this sequel was slightly compelling, there is a good chunk of the middle that could be taken out.

The problem is that, eventually, reading this book got to the point where I was reading it quickly NOT because it was so good, but because I wanted to get through it faster, allowing me to move on to my next read. It started to seem like reading it was a chore, and it dragged on and on and... Well, you get the point. The 630 pages could have been more like 300.

However, I don't want to bash it completely. The end turned out to be yet another powerful stand against "men who hate women." But I will say, solving the mystery wasn't nearly as satisfying as it was in the first installment.

Nonetheless, I trudged through it because very rarely do I give up on a book. I enjoyed the overall picture (the beginning and the end), but I did not enjoy the middle. I give it a mere two stars. Boo.

Now to pick up the pace! According to my Goodreads.com profile, I am 3 books behind. Oops. But the good news is, I have almost 11 months remaining. Stay tuned for book #3 (and no, it is NOT going to be Stieg Larsson's third installment...)!

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