Although I'm not one to jump at buying door-stop bestsellers just because they're bestsellers, I couldn't resist buying this when I was on my hols in Tasmania. I'd heard nothing but very good things about Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy and, besides, was really drawn by book one's title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The shop assistant in Hobart's Angus & Robertson raved about it too and promised me that I'd quickly get caught up in the lives of some very interesting characters and that I wouldn't be disappointed. Prophetic words, because I did and I haven't been. It's a fast-paced book and a lovely read, and I was glad of the lazy holidays so that I could spend more hours hooked into it than might otherwise have been possible.
Also like the fact - I read somewhere - that because it's considered hard by marketing departments (!) to sell books if the author has a foreign-sounding name (!!), Quercus decided to get word-of-mouth recommendations happening by handing out a phenomenal number of freebies. It's an approach that seems to have worked. Over 26 million copies have been sold around the world.
Only heard good things about the films too, but am going to resist seeing them until I've read books two and three.
6 comments:
I'm with you on big selling novels. I don't just buy them because they're doing well, but this dragon girl can't be ignored, can it? I've got it on my shelf, and will be giving it a go after reading a certain other book first :)
I hope you enjoy both, and that the "certain other" takes off in the same way that dragon girl did!
I've got one and two of the trilogy on my bursting Waiting to Read Shelf:) I quite like Gary's idea of not buying anymore until I've read all my outsanding books but I guess that literally that's several hundred! What can I say- when it comes to books I'm a shopoholic!
Ps Currently reading In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut. Marvellous.
Feed the addiction, JT. Don't go cold turkey on me. What else would writers have left to peddle?
As for In a Strange Room - tell me more. Am intrigued. I'll look up the blurb, but what is it about it that you like?
Well PB - I like just about everything in this book; his prose style,the unsual way he switches from third to first person which draws you in ( which I do too on my blog- although, obviously with a different objective)- but it is a good way to recount a true story in a fictionalized way - as both participator and observer...
But mostly you can't help feel such empathy for the writer - such a poignant story of rootlessness, loneliness and the search for love; it is a brave man who writes such a book. It's 10/10 from me:)
Cheers, JT. Will have to keep a look out for it. The other reviews rave too.
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