Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books/movies

[Emmie]

These books seem to be everywhere. The first one in the series is currently #1 on the New York Times paperback trade fiction bestseller list, after being on the list for 62 weeks. The second book in the series occupies the #2 position. The third book (which hasn't been released in paperback yet) is the #1 hardcover bestseller. This (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/books/16noir.html?pagewanted=all) article from June 15th says that Powell's Books in Portland has been selling 1,500 copies of the books per week and that employees have started calling it The Girl Who's Paying Our Salaries for the Next Few Months.

The first three books have already been made into Swedish films that seem to have received fairly high reviews. The first one has apparently made $103 million worldwide on a $13 million budget.

A US version of the first one with Daniel Craig is being made - it's supposed to start filming in the next few weeks, and is set to be released December 2011... and I seem to remember reading that the actors are signed on to do sequels if it's successful.

Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to create a thread to discuss them in. :)


Which of the books, if any, have you read? Do you feel that they live up to the acclaim? What things did you like or not like? What do you think of all the movie adaptions? If you haven't read them, do you plan to?

[rowan]

Awesome thread idea, Emmie :)

I've read the first and second books, and loved them. I think the main character, Lisbeth Salander, is so interesting. I feel like the author includes strange amounts of details (like models numbers of computers or motorcycles), which I guess means something to some people, but mostly I just skip over it XD. They're engaging and not difficult to read, but also not simplistic. Sometimes books with so much plot convolution get twisted up in themselves and hard to keep straight, but I feel the books strike a good balance between too complicated and too simplistic.

I've seen the Swedish film - it was fantastic. One of the better film adaptations of a book I've seen in a long time. The actress they got for Lisbeth is perfection - to the point that I feel bad for whoever they get for the English one. (Well, just looked it up - Rooney Mara. Huh, don't know her.) I'll probably see the English version, although I have my reservations since the Swedish one is so well done. Plus, something about watching a movie in Swedish that was originally written by a Swede seems right, like it's more the "world" he was envisioning while writing.

I'd like to see the people who did the Swedish version continue and do the other books as well, keeping the same cast. I think it'd be genius.

[Emmie]

I'd like to see the people who did the Swedish version continue and do the other books as well, keeping the same cast. I think it'd be genius.
Um, they already have. :D
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132620/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1343097/

I've already seen them, though they aren't officially released in all regions yet. I think the second movie ended up being my favorite, though the second was my least favorite book of the three.

I did notice the extreme detail too. For one thing, everyone seems to buy from IKEA. And I was amused by Salander's computer, because I was keeping track of new Apple products at the time the book was written and I remember when that exact model came out. It was one of the first 17" screens on a laptop. It's not necessarily unique to these books, though... some authors just like including specific details more than others.

[rowan]

I had no idea! I'm going have to get my hands on those. Though I'll probably wait on the third til I read the third book.

If the second was your least favorite, I'm even more anxious to read the third book. Too bad I'm waiting for paperback so it'll match my other two XD

[Sowen]

to tell the truth, recently I have only started reading it.
I really wanted to get into it but I couldn't...maby because it started from the swindle in Poland and it put me off. Everytime I turn on the polish tv or radio I can here about smaller or bigger crines, frauds and so one and I am just fed up to read (even if it's only author fiction)
I read only few chapters but stopped it...maby one day I will come back to it as I hear a lot good thing about the book (only few bad things about the movie)