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Ok, I have had this book for months and continue to try to get through it but I just can't seem to get through the second chapter. I keep hearing from everyone its great, but you have to first get through the first 150 pages! ARGH!!! Anyone have advice on how to do that?

I had trouble getting through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but for different reasons. A lot of the explicit parts had me wincing and I literally had to put the book down to process it.

Really, the beginning is a bit slow, but it's all great. There's not much you can do but grind through it and think of how you're soon going to hit the point where you can't put the book back down.

lol! Yes, I loved the girl with the dragon tattoo and the girl who played with fire, but it took me forever to read them. Now, I'm on the last one and yet again it's difficult to get through. Once you've read it, you'll be like "wow, what a great book."
Let us know if you finished it and what you think!

It took me two tries to get it started. Once you start on the third chapter you will find that it's much easier to read through. And it's definitely worth it!

I, too, found it difficult to get thru the first 100 pages. The financial part could have been shortened to make a better read. The Swedish movie did just that and the viewer didn't miss a thing!

Yep, it took forever to get started. Once we got through all the back story and boring character analysis (around chapter 3) it picked up, though the story seemed to repeat a lot of information I didn't think was necessary. I'm hoping The Girl Who Played With Fire would be better since it can (hopefully) just jump right into the plot.

I had to get through the first 80 pages. It's definitely worth the effort and reading it makes the 2nd book easier to understand. The 2nd book is fabulous and you'll be interested right away!

Sorry, me too...the first 2 chapters almost made me stop reading, but once I forced my way through those, I really enjoyed the book. I say just power through it!

I have read all of the books and watched the Swedish movies and I really liked the whole Triolgy, however, each book did have a section that had a lot of information that was a lot to take in. You have to try and keep as much of that in your brain and let some of it go. For me, the first book started to be really good once Lisbeth was introduced. The second book was my favorite, and the third book has a lot of information about the Swedish Secret Police that you will have to get through. I am definitely glad I read them, but not all books are for everyone. The Swedish movies were well done, but you won't get all of the facts, but that could be a better way to go if you just can't get through the books.

Thanks for all of the info here, I tried to start the first book over a month ago and put it down somewhere in the first chapter. Someone else told me after the first 100 pages it picked up- I will force myself to start the trilogy again. I find all the comments to be helpful- thanks!!!

In all honesty, I think Larsson is a huge phenomenon but somewhat of an unjustified one. I find Salander difficult to like and unrealistic (who can hack that well?!?). In any case, there are so many awesome Swedish mystery writers, including my favorite - Henning Mankell. I'm reading through his Wallander series now. I bought a couple more Swedish murder mysteries that I'll read soon, and they both say "In the vein of Henning Mankell" on the cover. So he's a good author to go to if you like the genre.

I'm feeling the same way. I pick it up and read for a few days...then I find something else. Glad to hear that it's worth it in the end. :)

I'm also having a really hard time reading it as well. I got this book for Christmas and I can't get absorbed. Stumbling over the names doesn't help either lol. All I hear is good things about this book but I just cant see it yet lol

Ivy wrote: "Ok, I have had this book for months and continue to try to get through it but I just can't seem to get through the second chapter. I keep hearing from everyone its great, but you have to first get ..."

What slowed me down in the first 100+ pages was the unfamiliar names of places and characters. I put a sticky note on the family tree page for easy reference and didn't obsess too much about keeping all of the family members straight, figuring the important ones would emerge if I concentrated on the story line and they did.

Ivy wrote: "Ok, I have had this book for months and continue to try to get through it but I just can't seem to get through the second chapter. I keep hearing from everyone its great, but you have to first get ..."

I had a hard time with getting through the first two chapters also. However, it does get better. I thought the mystery was very good! However, it was a hard book for me to get through as well.

Catherine wrote: "I had trouble getting through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but for different reasons. A lot of the explicit parts had me wincing and I literally had to put the book down to process it.

Reall..."

Yes, I agree. I put that in my review that there are very sexually violent discriptions in the book. But I agree even more that once you reach a certain point you can't put it down!

I agree with everyone that this is truly one of the hardest books to get through but once you are halfway through it....all you want to do is end up finishing it. I personally hated the first 200-300 pages but I then quite loved it. It's a bit sexually graphic but overall I could end up reading the sequel to it.

I second the other comments. It was a great book in my opinion. It hooked me and kept me entertained. I have read the entire series now. I find the book tame in comparison to the front page of the daily newspaper. If a reader finds the book offensive there are alternatives. Maybe, publishers could place ratings on the covers to alert the reader?

Ben wrote: "I second the other comments. It was a great book in my opinion. It hooked me and kept me entertained. I have read the entire series now. I find the book tame in comparison to the front page of the ..."

I know! That is a great idea. I was just posting in an earlier comment that they should place like a rated R symbol on the front of books now. I review a lot of books and not many people on amazon put in their reivew how sexually graphic some parts in this novel were. I wrote in my review that if you can't handle discriptions like that then you shouldn't read this book. However, I think they should still do that because I look to a lot of reviews to help my sister pick out more mature books. But she is only 13 and I don't want her reading something like that. So, that is the main reason that I write things like that in my reivews is for younger readers because not many of the reviews I have read put details like that in there.

Ivy, I too found the book hard to get into.
Below are the comments I made about it at my group:
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"I read Chapter One of TGWT Dragon Tatoo and I wasn't thrilled with it. There was too much talk about the characters' involvement in: business, industry, banking, investments, the stock market, funding, speculating, government initiatives, projects, court cases and the misuse of public funds. Boring! And that was only the first chapter! It doesn't bode well for the rest of the story."
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Thanks, Ivy, for posting this question in Book Talk. The answers here validate my opinion. That's a good feeling. :) It's encouraging to know that the book gets better in the third chapter (as Kelly mentioned above). But first I have to slog through the second chapter! (lol)

Carol mentioned the unfamiliar names. I can't stand it when too many characters are introduced at once without any character development. I also don't like being flooded with proper names and places. I especially have trouble with names which are odd or hard to pronounce. The foreign names in _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_ were annoying. I realize the writer was Swedish and the setting was Sweden. So the foreign names are to be expected, but I find that they make the reading harder for me.

SOOOOO glad there are other people saying this!! After all the media buzz around these books, I was excited to read the first one. 200 pages in, I was scratching my head trying to figure out why this was a must-read. The very beginning grabbed my attention, and then it was a lot of slogging through all of the very specific Swedish references to keep track of what plot was forming. Then, it FINALLY picked up the pace, and, by the end, I actually liked it. However, I think it should come with a giant disclaimer on the front - "WARNING - FASCINATING PLOT YOU'VE HEARD ABOUT ALL OVER TV AND READ ABOUT IN THE MAGAZINES DOES NOT ACTUALLY BEGIN FOR 200 PAGES, BUT YOU MUST READ THOSE 200 PAGES TO FULLY UNDERSTAND THE BACKSTORY. SORRY!!"

Ivy wrote: "Ok, I have had this book for months and continue to try to get through it but I just can't seem to get through the second chapter. I keep hearing from everyone its great, but you have to first get ..."I had jsut the opposiet reaction; I thought it quite interesting that the man received the flowers. Maybe because I travelled in Sweden it seemed the setting was just right and I was back there in my mind. Keep trying and you'll get there..."Are we there yet?" nina

The mysterious flowers may have been interesting, but all the financial and court business in the first chapter was not.

Joy H. wrote: "Carol mentioned the unfamiliar names. I can't stand it when too many characters are introduced at once without any character development. I also don't like being flooded with proper names and place..."

I agree. I think the foreign names were hard for me too. That is the only hang up I had with this novel. I had no idea until I started reading it that it was a Sweden based novel. Would have been nice to know before hand :) I find hard to pronounce names in books hard to read too. However, if the book is good enough I will just suffer through it. I am currently reading Eragon and it has a magic language that is spoken and weird names. Hard reading :) Also I thought the book was amazing, but when I first started reading it I was thinking "People are liking THIS?" Because of all the business and corporate talk was really Boring! I was so glad that it got better with the more you read it. Also when you get to a certain part of the novel you can't put it down :D

Brook wrote: "SOOOOO glad there are other people saying this!! After all the media buzz around these books, I was excited to read the first one. 200 pages in, I was scratching my head trying to figure out why th..."

Lol, I agree :D And is should also have a little R in the corner of the book to say this novel contains very graphic sexually violent discriptions in this novel. So, if thing like that bother you, you won't have to read any of it and waist your money. Wonderful book all the same though!

Joy H. wrote: "The mysterious flowers may have been interesting, but all the financial and court business in the first chapter was not."

Exactly!!! I was hooked after the flowers mystery, but then when it started talking about all this major company business stuff, I was like what the heck happened to the story I was just reading that was really interesting???? Then it got better :)

I still haven't read past the first chapter because I was so turned off by the dense and boring content, but I DID watch the movie. I especially liked the end of the movie. That was its redeeming feature.

I may still read the book... but only because I want to see what all the hoopla is about.

It's so great to read all these opinions which validate my own criticisms. I don't understand why the people who praise the book won't admit that the beginning of the book is dull reading. They praise the book to the skies. I think that's misleading. They should at least warn us.

The popularity of these books by Larsson is mind-boggling. They've caught on like wild-fire. I don't understand it. Sometimes I think that popularity feeds on itself. Everyone wants to jump on the band-wagon.

Joy H. wrote: "I still haven't read past the first chapter because I was so turned off by the dense and boring content, but I DID watch the movie. I especially liked the end of the movie. That was its redeeming f..."

Yes, I agree that everyone seems to want to get on the band wagon too. The only reason I decided to read these books was because my dad said they were really good. I had no idea that there was this big of a hipe with them :) However, I am going to watch the movie myself tonight and I will let you know if you should start reading the book again. The book definately does get better though in the third chapter I think.

I didn't read The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo because everyone else was reading it. Hardly any of my friends were; but my son in law's sister said when she was reading it she got so engrossed she missed her bus stop. That and the fact that I had travelled in Sweding made me curious. Strange, but it didn't seem boring; however, my son and husband do all that technical talk at home so I found it normal even if I didn't understand it. It is sort of background I am used to. We all bring our own background to our reading likes and dislikes. I have just finished two books for our book club and I like neither; one it The Cave. nina

Nina wrote: "... We all bring our own background to our reading likes and dislikes. ..."

That's so true, Nina! When and if I read the rest of _The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo_, I'll let you know my reaction.

Definitely. It took me two tries, but I did finish it. So many people told me it was a wonderful, terrific, awesome book. I enjoyed it but it didn't make me want to rave about it. I'm planning to read "The Girl Who Played with Fire". My boss tells me it is better than the first one. Hope he's right!

Hi, everyone! I just watched the movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tonight and it really didn't do the book justice. It put events in the wrong order and I just plain did not like it. I think who ever has not finished the book, but has watched the movie, really needs to finish the book. It is much better and does the mystery its self more justice than the movie did.

Kerra, thanks for the good advice.

Also just wanted to let everyone know and invite you to my radio talk show. It is called Kerra's Weekly Book Club and I am going to be discussing the novel "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," for the next three weeks.

I will be on the air for the first time on Friday, April 1st 2011 at 10am California time and at 1pm Ohio time.

If you can not get on the show and express your opinion of the book, but have questions you can e-mail me at [email protected] and I will address your questions on the air. So, if you can not get on the air you can at least listen to the show.

You can get to my show at

Hope to hear some of your voices there!

Also this is my first time doing this so I might mess up :) So, if I do please excuse me.

Joy H. wrote: "Kerra, thanks for the good advice."

You are so welcome. I was very disapointed in the movie. I just can't believe they jumbled the events all around. However, I guess there is going to be another Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remade by American producers. So, it will be neat to watch that one too. Hopefully it comes out soon.

I totally agree that the movie seemed to sidestep the book; even leaving out one of the main characters; almost, barely mentioning her. nina

Kerra wrote: "Joy H. wrote: "The mysterious flowers may have been interesting, but all the financial and court business in the first chapter was not."

Exactly!!! I was hooked after the flowers mystery, but th..."

I think it might be difficult for some to get through the background of the business etc in the first chapter but you really need to understand that the business is almost a needed background for the mystery that comes later. nina

Nina wrote: "I think it might be difficult for some to get through the background of the business etc in the first chapter but you really need to understand that the business is almost a needed background for t..."

I think you are right, if you don't read the first few chapters you won't really understand the ending.

I gave up on this book. Definitely not my kind of read. I am more into YA, fantasy, sci-fi, dystopians, basically anything with an element of impossibility. :)

-Sandra from

Sandra wrote: "I gave up on this book. Definitely not my kind of read. I am more into YA, fantasy, sci-fi, dystopians, basically anything with an element of impossibility. :)

-Sandra from ..."

Yes, I think the first few chapters were hard to get through, but it truely is an amazing book.

Also wanted to remind you all and invite you to talk on my radio show at Click on the blogtalkradio and it will show you the up coming events and you can click on Kerra's Weekly Book Club. This Friday April 1st at 10:00a.m. California time and at 1:00 Ohio time. I will be discussing the book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" I would love to hear some of your opinions and questions asked on my show :) The number to call in as a guest is posted at the top of the page at the blogtalkradio page. Hope to hear a few of your voices!

I had a lot of problems getting through the first book, that I saw the Swedish movie before starting the book didn't really help. In my opinion was the second part considerably better written.

Seeing the movie, "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo," before you read the book is definitely a spoiler. It is like reading the ending before you start the book. I don't remember having trouble with the first part. Maybe I just took it for granted that you need that background and I knew from the flower scene it would be interesting and different but of course, we all come to it from a different angle. The last book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest was the most purchased book in the world on New Year's Day. So, that is the other side. Some people liked the first one enough to get the other two. And it is almost impossible to read Number 2 and not rush to get the last one. if any of you got that far you will agree with me. nina

Nina, I agree with you. After the second book, you must have the third one!

I found the first 100 pages to be unbearable. It was way too much backstory and it made me put the book down for weeks at a time. I am SO glad I stuck with it because it turns into an exceptional story. I am currently reading the third, and while at times its hard to sift through all of the cups of coffee, it has not disappointed.

Ila wrote: "I found the first 100 pages to be unbearable. It was way too much backstory and it made me put the book down for weeks at a time. I am SO glad I stuck with it because it turns into an exceptional s..."

Yes Ila, I loved the book as well, but I oftened wondered how many cups of coffee can a person drink...

maybe a recommendation if you are struggling reading, I listened to the audiobooks of all three in the series because it was easier for me to visualize it...i found myself at times, taking the long way home from work, so that I could listen to just a few more minutes of the book...Simon Vance is a good narrator