Trying to Endure ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’

I tend to jump on pop culture-centric novels very late. For instance, I didn’t start reading the “Twilight” books until I got word of the movie. Then there was “The Da Vinci Code”, which I didn’t pick up until I realized it was the primary focus of every social situation I encountered — I had no choice.

Now there’s this whole ordeal with Stieg Larsson‘s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”. I was seeing it everywhere and considering I was fresh off of finishing non-fiction fare in the form of “Role Models” by John Waters, I thought it was time to see what all the hub bub was about.

So I started to read it knowing little to nothing about the plot. In the first 25 pages I was bombarded by all these Swedish countries and a very in-depth explanation of some corporate financial crimes that I am too dumb and too ADD to understand.

I did not sign up for an Eastern European geography class nor did I want to read about financial crimes. I just wanted to read (as the title suggests) about a girl with a dragon tattoo. In my mind, I thought the book would be about her and her too-cool-for-school escapades. I thought I would be reading about her likes (indie bands and shopping at Hot Topic), her dislikes (J. Crew and mean cheerleaders) and possibly read about her skills in martial arts (the dragon tattoo suggests deadly skills in mixed martial arts).

Again, my ignorance floated to the top.

I know I am just being impatient, so I am not writing it off. I wrote my feelings about this on my Facebook page (which, as we all know, is the foundation for all enlightening discussion) and got some really good support: