Book Chat
Movie Monday: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
As we all know, books turned into movies can either go really right or…horribly wrong. In fact, every time the rights to a beloved book series is sold to a major motion picture company there is a collective groan of apprehension across the world wide web. Who will they cast? What aspects of the story will they change? How can it ever do the writing justice?
I think that collective internet groan was especially loud when it was announced that MGM would be bringing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to the big screen. Well, for the second time. Why? Because the Swedish interpretations of novels written by Stieg Larsson are simply phenomenal and it is hard to imagine anyone doing better.
Let’s take a step back for a minute and talk about the books. This is where I get booed by book clubs across the country: I didn’t love the books. They were ok, good even in parts, but they were just too busy and scattered for my taste. The first in the series was by far my favorite, a solid 4 star read. However the remaining two felt disjointed and slow. I would have loved to see book two and three edited down to one novel.
All that said, if you haven’t read the series yet, it is worth taking a chance on. I mean hundreds of book clubs can’t be wrong, right? The story telling may not be perfect and the journey is slow in parts, but Lisbeth is a character that calls to you from the pages. I kept at it solely because of her and my need to know what happened to her. She is wounded, fragile, and yet…powerful. In a word, Lisbeth Salander is fascinating.
In 2009 the Swedish film company Yellow Bird released the first of three movies based on the books, staring Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth and Michael Nyqvist as the male lead. If ever there was a movie adaptation worthy of its origins, this was it. In fact I’m going to go so far as to say the movies are significantly better than the novels themselves. The distractions that slowed down the story are no where to be found in the films and the actors give the characters a depth and honesty that was missing from the text. Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth is perfection.
With the announcement of the U.S. remakes, I was …. nervous. Why do it?! The Swedish films are wonderful! Yes, you have to read subtitles but so what? We like reading! I was even more apprehensive when I saw the first of the promotional shots trickling out.
 |
 |
What… the? Really? Anyone who has read the books knows that Lisbeth would never tattoo her last name across her chest. Additionally, why do we have to take a woman who is fascinating in her own right and reduce her to a naked body in order to sell tickets?
Then I saw the trailer.
And I got excited. Maybe MGM simply shoots a really great trailer, or just maybe they have found a way to adapt the books in their own way. Rooney Mara has certainly found her own take on Lisbeth and I do rather like Daniel Craig in the role of Mikael Blomkvist. I’m certainly not won over but I’m at least willing to give it a chance.
Sunday Sound Off ~ April 10th, 2011
I’ve gotten entirely out of habit of writing blog posts… and I admit, I miss it. Without it I feel like parts of my brain are turning to mush. While zombies may appreciate the soft gooey texture of a mushified brain, I do not. So… Sundays are for writing now. Sometimes about books, sometimes about other things that catch my interest. Hopefully you will stick around for all of it. If there are any of my followers left that is….(listens for the echo).
Besides, I have to look busy while the kids are cleaning so I don’t get roped into helping.
All things Kindlicious
Everyone knows how much I love DRM, right? I mean what isn’t to love? I love publishers and resellers being able to tell me what I can do with my purchases, where I can store them, what devices I can utilize them on. Besides, who really wants to be able keep your ebook library accessible if you were to suddenly switch reading devices? Not I, said the fly.
If you are one of those weird readers who would appreciate being able to edit meta data, convert file types, back up without restriction, and utilize your ebooks on multiple platforms, you may be interested in this**. Calibre plug-ins for the win.
Remember that handy Kindle Lending feature? Someone has taken initiative and created a nicely designed, easy to use service called Lendle. They are certainly not the first to do so, but they are the nicest user interface I’ve seen so far. There was a brief hiccup as Amazon took away their API access because Lendle did not “serve the principal purpose of driving sales of products and services on the Amazon site.” Not long after API access was restored to Lendle and the website was able to recover.
I can’t help but wonder if publishers and suppliers did not predict these sort of services when they announced the lending features on the Nook and Kindle. It could certainly be part of the reasoning behind strict lending restrictions, but if so…. someone vastly underestimated the power of the internet and social networking. Surprisingly, I’m somewhat conflicted about large scale lending services. I’m partly annoyed that I can’t lend my ebooks to my 3 closest friends because of restrictions, that may or may not be in existence because of potential abuse. I’m partly annoyed that it is taking advantage of a feature in a way that it was not intended. A tiny piece of my brain is screaming, IT’S TOO EASY! Yet, I want people reading books and I understand not everyone can buy every release.
Speaking of easy and free, did you know there is a website that tracks free and discounted ebooks from amazon? There is: http://www.ereaderiq.com/
Author News
Not really news, but I loved this post by Bree from Moira Rogers. Proof that you don’t have to be signed with a “Big Name Agency” to support yourself through writing if you do it right. I’ve yet to hear of a negative experience with Samhain Publishing and as a reader, I am grateful. Grateful that they treat their authors so well and that they appreciate their readers even more so.
Book & Movie News
I posted before about the casting of Katniss in the Hunger Games movie. Peeta and Gale have now been cast as well. I am underwhelmed.
Yes, it is now April, but if you haven’t check out Alpha Reader’s list of Anticipated Books of 2011 you are doing yourself a disservice. My most anticipated of the bunch? Magic Slays. (Not my favorite cover of the series tho)
J.R. Ward’s Lover Unleashed was released, setting off a slew of funny blog posts, involving action figures, by some of my favorite bloggers. No, I’m likely not reading it… *gasp*. I have come to realize and accept that I can no longer take all the verily’s and abuse of the letter H. I only care about Qhuay. I’ve made peace with the fact that I don’t really care what happens to the rest of the brothers and their boring Chosen females.
Randomosity
Do you take your kindle to the toilet with you? I couldn’t help but laugh at some of the replies to this thread.
My favorite sunday morning activity as of late? Reading this blog. It doesn’t hurt that he introduced me to Portal and Left4Dead2. Now I’m afraid I’m done for.
An interesting look at Dave Grohl and his success after Nirvana. Speaking of, if you haven’t seen a high def version of the Foo Fighters from Wembley Stadium, you really should. I mean it.
When did Summer Glau get all sex kitten hot instead of just geeky hot and kick ass? The same can be asked of Michelle Trachtenberg.
Books Read in 2011 so far
- Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong
- Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning
- Side Jobs by Jim Butcher
- Zero Dog War by Keith Melton
Hah. This list is pathetic. I need to do my own 24 hour reading marathon.
Books Added to Kindle This Week…
 |
 |
 |
Music
Currently listening to…. Spoon live from Austin City Limits. Watch here.
**KindleVixen is not suggesting you pirate or share ebooks. We simply believe in having full rights to the things you purchase. Use, but do not abuse.
KindleVixen’s Fantasy Hunger Games Cast
I don’t think it is any big secret that I love really well written and smart Young Adult books, and one of my favorites is the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. It’s a not entirely unbelievable and heartbreaking post-apocalyptic story of a young girl and the rebellion she reluctantly becomes the face of. When I read the movie rights to the trilogy had been picked up by Lionsgate I was cautiously excited. Let’s face it, movie adaptions almost never go right. The Swedish adaptations of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo being one of the only exceptions. I am even more cautious with the announcement of Jennifer Lawrence being cast as Katniss. Her role in Winter’s Bone certainly testifies to her acting ability, but she is a far cry from what I imagined Katniss to be. Physical appearances can certainly be altered so she gets the benefit of the doubt and Suzanne Collins’ stamp of approval.
As discussion bounces around the internet and among my fellow mom friends who love this series, I say why not throw out our fantasy casts*? Don’t tell me you don’t have them. Or is it just me? Hmm. Well whatever, you are getting mine because this blog desperately needed a new post and this is what I felt like doing right now.
Playing the role of Katniss Everdeen:Kaya Scodelario |
 |
Playing the role of Peeta Mellark: Hunter Parrish |
 |
Playing the role of Gale Hawthorne:Ethen Peck |  |
Playing the role of Haymitch Abernathy:Hugh Laurie |
 |
Playing the role of Effie Trinket: Kristen Chenoweth |
 |
Playing the role of Prim Everdeen: Elle Fanning |
 |
Playing the role of Rue:Yara Shahidi |
 |
Playing the role of President Snow:Malcolm McDowell |
 |
Agree? Disagree? Who is on your list?
*This entire post is just rambling and speculation and wishful thinking.
Saturday Sound Off – January 15, 2011
Hello my dear blogger buddies!
Long time no talk. How are you? What’s new with you? Me? I’m fine… enjoying the last week of my winter break before school starts up again. Hopefully this semester is a little bit easier. I’m taking a light load of 3 math classes and a graphics design class. I’m going into it with a 4.0 GPA and hoping to keep it that way.
All things Kindlicious
The “big” news of late? Kindle now has a lending feature. Big news is a relative term as it pretty limited, just like the nook lending feature. Both devices now allow book lending between devices and apps following these restrictions:
- A book may be lent once, and only once.
- A book is lent out for 14 days only and during that time is inaccessible on the owner’s device
- Not all books are available for lending and which books are available depend upon publisher restrictions. Currently Barnes & Nobles has about 30% of its ebook stock, which includes public domain free books, as lendable. I have yet to see a number for Amazon.
I was hoping that Amazon would be a little more lenient and allow it to be lent more than once, it would have been a great selling point for those who are in book clubs, but I didn’t expect it.
IReaderReview.com had a slew of really good posts over the last month. A few of my favorites:
- The Race to Zero – a good look at ebook pricing after the installment of agency pricing.
- $55,500 for Indie Author in 31 Days – 5 Independent authors earned over $15,000 and 25 independent authors sold more than 2,500 ebooks in December.
- What else can you do with the kindle besides read? – a great list!
Something that seems to have gone almost unnoticed but I think is far cooler than the lending feature is the ability to side-load your kindle formatted books onto your iphone/ipad/itouch devices. You are no longer restricted to only books in your amazon account while using the Kindle app on your iDevice. Through iTunes you can add mobipocket/prc/azw books onto your device and read them in the Kindle app. This is especially useful for book reviews who don’t have a kindle but like ebooks.
Entirely random but I ran across this graphic from Newsweek and thought it was an interesting comparison. I’d love to see the sourcing but can’t seem to locate it.
Author News
Rachel Vincent announced the details her new adult series. The first book in the Unbound series will be Blood Bound and have a stronger romance theme than the early shifter books. It sounds like a unique world and I am definitely looking forward to it!
The first book in Keri Arthur’s new Dark Angel series, Darkness Unbound is now up for preorder on Amazon.com.
Richelle Mead posted an excerpt from Iron Crowned, the third book in the Dark Swan series, here. I miss Eugenie, can’t wait for this release.
Moira Rogers has the coolest post ever here. I’ve been trying to be better about taking notes and keeping a notebook of series I love and their characters. I appreciate this post so much. Also. Andrew is still mine.
Books Read in December & January so far
- Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews – 5 stars
- Alpha by Rachel Vincent – review coming
- Total Eclipse by Rachel Caine – review coming
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
- The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
- The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
Books Added to Kindle This Week…
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Music listening to while writing this blog entry…Back in Your Head by Tegan and Sara
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1) by George R.R. Martin
Image designed by Ailish Dawn
Visit Book Blogs