Friday, May 21, 2010

What Would You Recommend? Stieg Larsson, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo etc

This is a question I get asked all the time working in the bookstore: "What would you recommend for somebody who loved "_________"? (fill in the blank)" Usually I can come up with something, but that something can be a bit of a wild guess if it's not a book or genre I normally read. This is where you helpful people come in. If you have a suggestion, I'd love to hear it.

Stieg Larsson's books have been all the rage for the past while, but they're really popular now the third book, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest has come out. The popularity of the three books has only been helped by the release of the movie version of The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo. Nearly every customer in the store (or so it seems sometimes) is there looking for one of the three books. Add to that, the numbers on Amazon seem to be backing that thought up. There's well over a thousand reviews and ratings for the first of the three books alone. What's somewhat unusual in my experience is that it's both men and women who are buying them. Most of the time I've found that books are more popular with one or the other.

For anyone who's been hiding under a rock (or perhaps a mountain, given just how popular the books are), the three books are, in order: The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and now, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. I think there were originally supposed to have been more books in the series, but apparently these three make a complete story in and of themselves.

This will put me in the minority, but I haven't read any of these books yet. As a result, they're perfect for my "What Would You Recommend?" post. I'd intended to use these books last week, but things ended up getting in the way of me posting last weekend.

Thankfully, I haven't had to make recommendations for readers of these books yet - everyone's been too busy getting their hands on first the paperback version of The Girl Who Played With Fire, and now the new one, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest to want suggestions for more books to read. That's probably going to be changing soo though, once they finish this book.

I'm guessing that at least some of you have read at least one of these books and can make some suggestions for what other books these people might enjoy reading next. So, "What Would You Recommend?"

4 comments:

Anassa said...

I'm in the minority too, but tend to recommend Henning Mankell on account of him also being Scandinavian. He writes literary detective novels though, if I understand correctly.

Elena said...

Thanks for that tip. It's been really helpful this weekend. Not just the Mankell, but the other authors from that area. There are a few other mystery authors as well: Ake Edwardson, Camilla Lackberg, etc.

crabbylady said...

I just finished the second and will get the third Larsson book today...the author died right after the first book was published (all three were submitted simultaneously) which is why the series is limited to three. The books are "can't put down" books, perfect for long trips or relaxing vacations where you have lots of time...otherwise you'll be ignoring housework and sleep to finish them, because you won't be able to stop reading them.

Elena said...

That's what I've heard, crabbylady. Thanks for confirming it.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...