I wasn't going to read the two follow ups to the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I liked the story, hated the writing and figured I'd just watch the movies.  But my Mom told me I'd like the movies better if I'd read the books, so I read them. 

I enjoyed the second and third books better than the first.  Part of it was probably because I knew the prose was going to be like hacking my way through the underbrush of the Amazon so I brought my machete.  Most of it was because these two books unearthed the mystery of the main character.  I find Lisbeth Salander much more interesting than the journalist hero of the first part; Whatsisname Blomqvuist.  Yeah, he's in all the books and he never does develop a personality but at least I found out what All the Evil meant.

Books like these make me happy I learned to speed read in high school.  I'm looking forward to the movies, though.  I've put the originals on my Netflix list and I think the American versions will be good.  There's certainly enough sex and violence to satisfy an American audience.  Lots of yucky, yucky stuff.

After I finished those, I read Little Bee, by Chris Cleave.  Katie got it for Christmas and she liked it.

It was okay.  Again; the writing was like hacking my way through the woods, but at least it was written in English.    There are very few male authors who can write a convincing female and the two main characters in Little Bee are female.  Mr. Cleave does a pretty good job. I don't remember thinking that the female voices sounded fake.  It's a sad story. 

Since he moved out and can't afford cable or the internet, Zack has started reading.  He's reading a ton of Steven King and he borrowed a bunch of Isaac Azimov from me.  He likes to call me and talk about the books.  Yesterday, he said that while he appreciated Azimov for his imagination and his stories, he didn't think much of him as a story teller.  That's true.  His books would all make terrific movies.  Zack should read more Michael Chrichton.  He loved Jurassic Park but that's the only one he's read.  And he should read all the Louis L'Amour he can get his hands on.

Zack, my brilliant son whose high school counselor thought he would do very well in prison, actually said this to me "I hate reading translations.  Dante's Inferno is probably awesome in Italian and in fact would be a great movie and an even better video game but reading it sucked."  He read it on his own, on vacation.  He was never in a lit class that assigned it.  He took a copy of P.O.W. out of here this week. He'll love it.

 I think that everyone who wants to be a story teller should read Louis L'Amour.  Say what you want about the cowboy chronicler; the man knew how to keep a story moving forward.

I may have to start reading him again.  I think I need a book that's as easy to read as watching tv.  The problem is if I read one Louis L'Amour, I'm gonna want to read them all again.

That's not really a problem, is it?

What I really want to do is read all the Harry Potter books again.

And all of Georgette Heyer's books again.

And the collection of Jane Austen books that I got for Christmas a year ago.  Hmmmm.  I haven't read most of those even once yet.

I should probably do that.

Now that I'm done with all the new stuff for the latest show, I have time for picking up a new author.

After I finish sleeping for about a week.