Book Report!

It's been... I don't know, maybe 11 months since I've done a book report. I was actually hoping to say like 11 years, but then I remembered my senior capstone class of college required me do a book report on War Games. And if you knew about that class, I learned just about everything I need to be a successful business man. (or so they say). Surprisingly, this book report is going to cover a little known series written by, Stieg Larsson, which I read solely for leisure purposes. There are only a select few books I've ever read for those purposes, Harry Potter series, blink, and the Alchemist. (Great books I might add)

Before I get started, one of my biggest pet-peeves is when published books (be it a college text books or a novel) contains spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Now I do understand that I am no where being perfect in the whole writing department as my spelling and grammar have always been horrid but I'm just disappointed in seeing it in places where I have to pay money. This novel series only had a couple mistakes, which were just minor spelling mistakes. [Challenge: Can you find them?]

I highly recommend these novels to anyone that enjoys reading fictional novels because this was a spectacular read. I don't want to ruin it because I would love if everyone had time to enjoy a little light reading with it and I had no knowledge of what this series contained when I first started. I first started off buying this little thick packet of pages with a green cover that contained the orange letters, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Then I blasted off into this surreal story that plops down in the snowy hills of Sweden. Honestly, this had me captivated the entire time. My imagination led me to create this entire story in my own mind and every single chapter just brought more elements to this create this "movie" in my head. The author does a great job of moving the story in the beginning even if the first 100 or so pages are quite boring. [But trust me, it's totally worth fighting through them!] 


By the end of the first book, I was blown away. It had me just dying to figure out what happened next. It was like that itch where you really couldn't do anything else without thinking, "Aaah I want to know what happens next!" So I try the impossible. I try to find the next two books in the middle of Taiwan. Where the English book section in book stores are way in the back and have the smallest shelf space. It took me a couple tries (pretty epic adventures I may add) but I finally did find both of them. I usually did a lot of the reading in the mornings as no one really woke up in the dorms until 11 am (early) through 1 or 2 pm. So I usually read for a couple hours until everyone woke up and then went to grab food together.

I pretty much finished the second book in a week. I couldn't put the book down. It was an insane adventure. It was pretty much my favorite book of the 3. It picked up right from the end of the first and didn't stop moving until the very end. There were no slow parts and there were parts where I had to be, "Put the book down. Now." The only bad part of the book, there wasn't an end. It just stops and rolls straight into the beginning of the 3rd book. That's where you have to have the 3rd book, or else you may go crazy not knowing what will happen next.

The third book took me the longest, as I pretty much stopped reading because it didn't really fall into an importance in my life anymore. (There were some other factors that made me stop reading it, but that really isn't important at this moment) I did just finish it now though... finally after about 3 or so months and I am very glad that I finished it. Starting up again brought back the story line, all the characters, and the side plots that I had forgotten from taking long breaks from the book. This book differs a little bit from the other two as it's setting is different than the other two. By no means is it the worst though. I could argue that the last one is the greatest, as I'm sure that one could argue vise versa. Either way, it's still a solid book full of captivating moments and paragraphs.

To be honest, to write a good book you really only have to follow a couple rules. {just my thoughts}

1. Your main character(s) has to have something they didn't have in the beginning.
2. The character goes through a sensible situation that creates that change or difference
3. The plot makes sense. It's realistic to a reason and it's able to connect with the reader

By none, am I saying that writing a good book is easy. It takes some writers years to write a great one. With that said, this book series contains excellent character development which contains a wide variety of different personalities for each. Each character had their own struggle which tied them to another character with surprisingly great twists. It always astonishes me how authors are able to tie everything together, which always leaves me speechless after.

I do have to throw out a thanks for the one that recommended this book. As I learned a lot from this book. I would love to tell what I learned and what I pulled from it but at the same time I wouldn't want to chance that I may ruin any part of this book series.

So I hope that one day, someone will finish this book. Be as captivated while reading it as I was and I would love to chat-chit about your thought and share mine. 

One more thing. Please don't watch the movies. Just like everyone else says, "Movies ruin the book." I watched the first two movies while in Taiwan with some great friends but it just didn't bring out the story line like how it is portrayed in the book. Anyways, until next time... 

Stay Classy

Alastar Swift

PS. I'm working on a sweet Taiwan Project. Be on the look out!