Initial comments on the book

Hope you're all enjoying the holidays. I started the book this weekend and made a few notes:

First, the translator is Reg Keeland, aka Steven T. Murray, an American literary translator originally from Berkeley, CA, who has translated over 20 books. Just out of curiosity, does anyone on this blog speak Swedish?

The story is set in Stockholm, Sweden, in modern times (early 2000s?), and the protagonist, Blomkvist, says he has an apartment on "Bellmansgatan", which I discovered is a road on an island in central Stockholm.

The nickname "Kalle" comes up quite a bit at the outset and is apparently common in Sweden for Karl/Carl. In particular, there is reference to Kalle Blomkvist from books by Astrid Lindgren in 1940s/50s (aka Bill Bergson in English translations), who was "a more-or-less ordinary Swedish boy with an extraordinary fascination for detective work". Perhaps the fictitious "Kalle Blomkvist" is the Swedish version of the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew?

Any initial thoughts/comments/questions?

-John

p.s. I noticed that the translator used "gaol" (i.e. British variant of "jail"), at least in my copy.

Stieg Larsson

Happy holidays!

I haven’t had time to start reading the book yet, but I was able to do a little research on the author, Stieg Larsson, who passed away before the book was published. He’s quite an interesting character in and of himself. If anyone is interested, check out these links:

http://www.stieglarsson.com/Life-and-work

Telegraph article

Vanity Fair article

Enjoy,

John

And the winner is.......

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson! You can make comments as you read, and read comments as they are made. But be sure to include “Spoiler” alerts if you plan on giving away any key information!

In about 6 to 8 weeks, we’ll vote on our next book book to read and discuss online. So, please be sure to include your suggestions in your comments.

Here We Go!

Our first book selection will be announced very soon. Stay tuned.....