The Boy with the Rolled Ankle Reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Today marked a rare day where i voluntary stayed home to nurse a sprained foot. I'd like to say it was entirely basketball-related, but in all honesty, the whole day was bad for my feet. It started in the morning when i decided to wear my old loafers to work because they were comfy. The sole came off the left foot at the most inopportune time and i almost fell down the stairs in pursuit of my lunch order. Despite having a pair of basketball shoes on hand (or on foot?), I was forced to wear flip flops the rest of the time at work simply due to color coordination problems: my pants were khaki and my baller shoes where black and grey. The style police won this round.
Later that day during basketball (tuesday nights are the only time when i offset my beer consumption with actual exercise), i tried sidestepping like i was weighing 130 lbs, and just like that, reality became slow and blurry and my life flashed before my eyes. My left Nike decided to stay put while my body shifted to the left in anticipation of a great dribble penetration and a resulting two points via an amazing layup. The result was i rolled my ankle even if i managed to stay upright. Still seething at the loss of two points, i told myself to suck it up and play the rest of the game - in the mistaken belief that keeping the foot loose will prevent swelling. I guess it kinda did, but the moment i went home and slept, the cold room temperature finished the job.
Not wanting to waste a rare day-off, i started with my latest anticipated book purchase, Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which i scoured far and wide to get only because i couldn't/wouldn't dare buy and read the second and third installments (The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest) of the this Millennium trilogy. The other two were easily available, but the first one was out of stock. I chanced upon the first book last weekend over at Fully Booked and was Fully Pleased.
Needless to say, I was able to finish the book despite my infant son's continued insistence to trade my paperback with his combination rattle/teether, Good Night Moon, his rubber ball, and/or his drool. I'm blogging now because Elan is fast asleep, otherwise he would start chewing on the monitor while pulling on the cables.
The novel left me in a conundrum. It was definitely a good read, but not really as good as advertised. Character development was good, daresay even great, but the plot somehow got long-winded. Too many subplots i guess, and using Sweden as backdrop kinda distracted me simply because of the names of places and people who have more vowels than consonants. I had already arrived at the end of the main plot but upon looking, i saw i still had about a hundred pages to go - reminding me of road trips with multiple destinations and you have no idea which one is the last stop.
While the book does shine the spotlight often on the male protagonist, it was tattoo girl Lisbeth Salander, who really drew the most interest. This is where the conundrum starts: i already anticipate that Lisbeth's story will be more developed in the next two books, but i'm not ready to commit yet. Hopefully the series gets better with every book, unlike the damn Harry Potter series where you start with the Hogwarts Express and end in a trainwreck of a story.
I wouldn't spoil the experience by writing a plot summary or even discussing some of the points of interest of the book. Why don't you just google the title or even better, put down your cafe lattes and head to the nearest bookstore and read the back page summary? You may like it, you may not, but you'll be intrigued as i was and left openly debating if you should stop while you're ahead, or might as well read the other two installments of this trilogy. After all, Larsson died after drafting this three-book manuscript, and it's not very likely he'll be coming out with a new novel soon.
I'm out of books for now. Fortunately, my ankle seems better.
Later that day during basketball (tuesday nights are the only time when i offset my beer consumption with actual exercise), i tried sidestepping like i was weighing 130 lbs, and just like that, reality became slow and blurry and my life flashed before my eyes. My left Nike decided to stay put while my body shifted to the left in anticipation of a great dribble penetration and a resulting two points via an amazing layup. The result was i rolled my ankle even if i managed to stay upright. Still seething at the loss of two points, i told myself to suck it up and play the rest of the game - in the mistaken belief that keeping the foot loose will prevent swelling. I guess it kinda did, but the moment i went home and slept, the cold room temperature finished the job.
Not wanting to waste a rare day-off, i started with my latest anticipated book purchase, Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which i scoured far and wide to get only because i couldn't/wouldn't dare buy and read the second and third installments (The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest) of the this Millennium trilogy. The other two were easily available, but the first one was out of stock. I chanced upon the first book last weekend over at Fully Booked and was Fully Pleased.
Needless to say, I was able to finish the book despite my infant son's continued insistence to trade my paperback with his combination rattle/teether, Good Night Moon, his rubber ball, and/or his drool. I'm blogging now because Elan is fast asleep, otherwise he would start chewing on the monitor while pulling on the cables.
The novel left me in a conundrum. It was definitely a good read, but not really as good as advertised. Character development was good, daresay even great, but the plot somehow got long-winded. Too many subplots i guess, and using Sweden as backdrop kinda distracted me simply because of the names of places and people who have more vowels than consonants. I had already arrived at the end of the main plot but upon looking, i saw i still had about a hundred pages to go - reminding me of road trips with multiple destinations and you have no idea which one is the last stop.
While the book does shine the spotlight often on the male protagonist, it was tattoo girl Lisbeth Salander, who really drew the most interest. This is where the conundrum starts: i already anticipate that Lisbeth's story will be more developed in the next two books, but i'm not ready to commit yet. Hopefully the series gets better with every book, unlike the damn Harry Potter series where you start with the Hogwarts Express and end in a trainwreck of a story.
I wouldn't spoil the experience by writing a plot summary or even discussing some of the points of interest of the book. Why don't you just google the title or even better, put down your cafe lattes and head to the nearest bookstore and read the back page summary? You may like it, you may not, but you'll be intrigued as i was and left openly debating if you should stop while you're ahead, or might as well read the other two installments of this trilogy. After all, Larsson died after drafting this three-book manuscript, and it's not very likely he'll be coming out with a new novel soon.
I'm out of books for now. Fortunately, my ankle seems better.
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