Monday, December 5, 2011

Chapters 1-5

First reactions? Favorite characters? Predictions? Yay or nay?


Post anything that is on your mind about the first section of the book :)

7 comments:

  1. I just finished chapter 1 and it's starting off kind of slow, lots of background. Although I'm sure it'll get good once we get through the background and into the murders.

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  2. After finishing the first five chapters, I'm kind of confused about what is going on. I mean, the story so far is good, but all the Swedish words are weird.

    I like how the first two chapters introduce all the characters and where they work for, etc.

    The fifth chapter was trilling! The whole Hedeby Island story was intense and it's crazy that the body of Harriet isn't found anywhere.

    And I just have a prediction that Lisabeth's email is related to the murder or something.

    And agreeing with Joe, the first couple chapters just set everything up.

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  3. I can see how the Swedish words are confusing. "Herr" i think is like Mister, libel is a law that forbids the publishing of false statements that are detrimental to a person.

    I think the background is all set up now and the exciting parts will begin soon. The Hedeby Island story is like Clue on a massive scale.

    I don't think that Lisbeth's e-mail was about the murder i think she's investigating Wennerstrom because she believes that Mikael is innocent. This is probably how they will cross paths and become partners.

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  4. I meant to comment the other day but I wasn't sure if we had to. Any way I agree with you guys about how the beginning was really slow. But then I ended up liking how the author tied it all up together. I also thought the prologue was interesting about the flowers. I was wondering why he put the flowers in that specific order. What I mean is the flower he received was the forty fourth flower so I would assume if he put them in rows of ten then he would put it in the last row but it said that he was going to place it in the first row but in the ninth slot. I don't know if that means anything but I just thought the prologue was interesting.

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  5. I completely agree that the first chapters were very slow, but once everything came together I was glad we had as much background as we did. As someone who doesn't know much about economics or journalism I found much of it hard to read and had to go back and reread entire pages.

    The story that Vanger tells was really intriguing but I'm not sure about his character. He seems to play up the details to win Blomkvist over when it wasn't necessary.

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  6. I definitely agree that the first chapter was boring, but afterwards it started to pick up.
    In addition to the economics and journalism that Emma stated, I thought there was also a lot of European history in the book as well.

    Vanger is an interesting character, but Salander is the character that fascinates me the most. Although she does not have good social skills, and had dropped out of school, she has the ability to investigate and find out things that no one else could. For instance, when she was given only 3 days to write a full report on a personal investigation. She gathered more information than the first investigator could ever find and "transformed the outwardly pleasant young yuppie into an unreliable bastard" (Larsson 41).
    I also feel like the author gave so much background knowledge on all the characters except Salander. There was only a short section about her family. I think that there will be some shocking information revealed about her in the future.

    And, how about the relationship of Blomkvist, Berger, and Beckman? I was NOT expecting that.

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  7. I don't think there was a significance to the order of the flowers. I think he just put the flowers in consecutive order when he received them each year. I also thought the prologue was interesting and drew me in to the reading. In response to the question Sandy posed, it could be a possibility that in Sweden, marital ethics are different than that in the United States, and affairs may be more common. Or, specifically Erika and her husband don't really care about staying faithful.

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