What I am doing, besides hanging out with myself

Am currently reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I picked up a cheap paperback copy and the reviews on the back (and in the front) are hilarious in their similarity; everyone wants to compare Larsson to Bergman. Really, guys? I mean, there's no other Swedish comparison, say, in the literary field? You couldn't do some research on, say, Swedish mystery writers? Look, look, wikipedia has some information! Wow!

All right, fine, I've only seen two Bergman movies, so I'm unqualified to judge if there's a comparison. And I'm sure that from an international standpoint (and maybe a domestic one, but I don't know, I'm not a Swede - in fact, I have Norwegian ancestry, so my instincts are probably way off as they are born of MUTUAL AND LONGSTANDING ENMITY) that Larsson probably wouldn't mind being called Bergmanesque.* It still struck me as hilarious, the name and the linking of them in multiple reviews. Whatever, in America, Sweden=Bergman. Apparently.

So far, I like it. I like Lisbeth Salander, and I feel like I'm supposed to. She comes across as both antagonist and protagonist right away; I don't know if that's proper or if I'm reading too much into her punky attitude. The book reminds me a bit of The Pledge, for some reason. We'll see if that holds up at all, or if I'm being as silly as the reviewers with their Bergman Bergmaning.

Something else I noticed, there's a lot of offhanded notes about apartment and house space in square footage. Blomkvist stays in a 500 sq. ft. guest house and has a 700 (give or take) sq. ft. apartment. I shrink in my set and pledge hereby to never again bitch about the lack of space in my apartment.

I originally picked up this book because I had to catalog the film version of The Girl Who Played With Fire at work. It looks fascinating, as does Noomi Rapace. But then I remembered: they're remaking the goddamn thing. (Yeah. I may have mentioned that generally I'm not a fan of remakes.) So Hollywood, what's with all the remakes of Scandinavian films? Tired of trolling through Japan and Korea and Hong Kong?





^{*Actually, no one uses that clunky term. But I like it. Bergmanesque esque esque.}