Summer break: a time for me to catch up on my recreational reading.
My summer classes aren’t exactly over, but with one class down, I actually have some spare time early this summer. I’ve been eager to dive into some fiction, but I had a really hard time selecting a book to read. I finally settled on a book I’ve picked up several times over the past few years but never got around to reading, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I downloaded the sample to my kindle a while back, but couldn’t get through it. I don’t know what made me try again, but I’m glad I did (I’m not usually into thrillers, but this book was engaging and character-driven, and I never got caught up in investigative details). So I spent the past couple of weeks reading the entire trilogy only to find out that the author, Stieg Larsson, died before the books were published, and therefore I will not have the opportunity to read more about the quirky and endearing computer genius, Lisbeth Salander. Crap.
I looked a bit into Larsson’s background and discovered that we share a birthday (August 15th) and a love for science fiction. What was most striking for me, was that writing these books, for Larsson, was sort of a hobby. He had written all three before he sought to publish them. Of course, Larsson had been a writer all his life, and he planned on ultimately penning 10 novels in the series, but it is interesting that he initially created his legacy for himself and his own pleasure. I think there is a lesson in that. And I’m certainly glad the books were published, but I’m a bit ambivalent about his girlfriend completing the fourth book…this thing may be better left to rest.
