Friday, November 13, 2009

STIEG LARSSON BUZZING ALONG


I am approaching the final chapters of The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest and reading slower and slower as I really don't want to part company with Lisbeth Salander.
I am going through an experience that is similar to those childhood summer holidays where at the start the days seem to go on for ever, but as the end approaches every day rushes past quickly, and before you know it your precious holiday is over.

Reg Keeland, Larsson's excellent translator from the original Swedish, was right when he told me the books get better and better. Hornets' Nest fairly buzzes along in comparison with the fairly pedestrian first book in the trilogy, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Stieg Larsson's death was tragic, made more so by the unfortunate family dispute that has followed, and the loss of a writer who was going to produce a lot more thought provoking crime fiction if he had lived.

Many years ago I read five of the ten books in the great Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo 'Story of a Crime' series. Later I spent weeks searching for the missing books in the series eventually finding two more in a bookshop in Totnes, and only when the Harper Perennial series was published recently did I get the complete series on my bookshelf.

But I still have not read two of the books Murder at the Savoy, and The Abominable Man, because I want to delight in the anticipatory pleasure of reading them for a little bit longer.
Does anyone else do this, or am I alone in this idiosyncrasy?

9 Comments:

Blogger Cathy said...

I have the final books in 3 or 4 series that I'm holding on to for just the same reason.

10:57 AM  
Blogger Bernadette said...

I was the same way with the last bit of TGWKTHN - I rushed out to buy it and couldn't wait to get home to start reading but then I slowed down towards the end because I simply didn't want it all to be over.

11:07 AM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

I am so happy there are others who do this. ;O) Just over 200 pages to go with TGWKTHN so I will probably be finished on Monday as there is a bit of rugby to watch this weekend.

1:48 PM  
Blogger Kerrie said...

I'm reading it on my Kindle Norman, and am at 26%

10:33 PM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

Kerrie, Kindle must be a lot lighter to carry around than TGWKTHN in hardback. I am over 400 pages in now and the various strands of the plot are just starting to coalesce. Exciting.

4:36 AM  
Blogger Dorte H said...

When I was young, I read very much and very fast. Today I know that when I approach the final chapters of a really fine book, I will slow down, brew an extra mug of coffee, take a bath or even do the laundry - just to postpone that last chapter!

It is like having one piece of excellent chocolate left in the box!

2:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My problem is getting interrupted in the final few pages of every good book I read. I could kill!

4:18 AM  
Blogger Philip Amos said...

I do this every Christmas, Norman. During the year, I make note of new books by authors on my A+ List acquired by the library, and cunningly put in requests for these just in time for the Christmas season, a time of year I could otherwise well do without. And so it is that I shall in a few weeks be carting home Reg Hill, Sigurdardottir, Indridason, Fossum, Nesser, two Leons, Theorin, and Christopher Fowler. I would have Camilleri awaiting, but I had a moment of weak will there, and that is quite a little treasure trove I have in store, I should say.

9:32 AM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

Philip you could well overdose on brilliant crime fiction with that collection.
You will certainly be very unpopular with any other crime aficionados in the area. ;o)

10:03 AM  

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