Gone Away World

Just started “Gone Away World” by Nick Harkaway. Our friend David Anderson recommended it, but I don’t remember specifically what he’d said about it, if anything. It’s just my opinion that David’s reading taste would be “high brow,” but Jim expressed interest in reading the book, so I ordered it through the local library. It’s pretty lengthy and Jim took two of the three allowed borrowing periods to read it. He enjoyed it a lot. Now, my turn. I just started it last night; am probably on page 10 at most. It’s dense writing, great snarky attitude of narrator, will no doubt be slow going for me. Lots of re-reading of passages after I go “Wait, what??” no doubt. With only one borrowing period left, to expire on 10/26, I think, I’m trying to figure out next step (I love to think ahead) – my first attempt will be to go to the library on expiration day and ask if I can just renew it. Otherwise, I will have to turn it in and it will be returned to the library whence it came; then I will put it on my hold list again and it will have to be shipped to my library again. Of course, it could come from an entirely different library. I’m sure the copy I have in hand is not the only copy in the PINES library system. Wish me luck! (BTW, problem solved - just ordered the paperback from Amazon!)

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Just finished reading “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” Quite a frustrating book. For the first 200+ pages, I kept wondering what everyone was raving about. I remember seeing a woman on a plane with the book; as I walked down the aisle to my seat, I asked her “Does this get any better?” and she replied that it was really good, that I shouldn’t give up. So after taking many breaks during the first almost 300 pages of the book to read other books, I took GWDT with me on a recent trip and finally got why it was so compelling. I finished it just last night. Ending up enjoying it doesn’t change my mind about the first almost-half of the book. Why do (sorry to be making a generalization here) European writers spend so much time on what appears to be unnecessary exposition. Maybe to justify what Blomvquist and Salander end up doing to Wennerstrom, but still. Maybe with all that out of the way, books 2 and 3 can get right into the crimes/mysteries. I shall continue with the series!