www.booksarebetterthanmovies...mostofthetime.com

Jewel here again.  I finished my second book, right on schedule!  Boom, roasted.  For someone who never read a textbook in college (and I'm being completely serious here, never ever read anything except a few sentences of each chapter at my best), I'm actually keeping on reading schedule, which is amazing!  I  recently discussed with some awesome people how, if the deadline comes, and I'm not close to finishing, I will just read like 10 Baby-sitters Club books, cause I could get through them in about two hours...but I digress.  My second book, if you're wondering (and I assume you are, because honestly- you're the one reading this) was "the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".

Before I read the book, I had just recently seen the movie.  It was in Swedish, and now looking back, I could possibly even say I have read it twice since I read the whole movie...huh.  Maybe I'm done with 2 1/2 books!  Now I am a stronggggg advocate for always reading a book before seeing the film adaptation.  In fact, I recently saw a quote that said, "Never judge a book by it's movie."  EXACTLY.  But I know it's not possible to read all books before seeing movies, and thus, I ended up watching "the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" before reading it.

I was very surprised to realize that I actually enjoyed the movie more than the book!  Now, never show this to my parents please, as they never read, and always tease me by saying, "oh, they wrote a book after that movie?"  har, har, har.  Gets funnier every time.  :)  But it's true...the movie was better in my mind.

The book centers around a journalist who has lost a case of libel against a large corporation, and is hired on a private basis to solve a very old murder case.  He is joined by a young hacker/researcher girl, and they stumble upon a history of sexual violence and murder.  The book and movie are definitely thrillers, and bring out strong emotions with quite graphic scenes.  I enjoyed the book, but it concentrated on two fronts- the libel case, and the murder mystery.  The movie just focused on the murder mystery.  The movie seemed to flow better, and to truly keep you on the edge of your seat.  Some of the graphic sexual violence scenes though...well, I definitely had to fast-forward through two. 

When I looked into the history of the book (because I'm a nerd and many times do that, ahem), I found out that the author Stieg Larsson, considered the sexual violence a main theme.  The original title was "Men Who Hate Women" and the theme was based on some truth from his own past.  At 15, he witnessed the gang rape of a young girl, and was never able to forgive himself for not being able to stop it.  His main female character was named after the girl in this incident- Lisbeth.

Btw- I am on a very sad spell- I need a much more uplifting book next.  Suggestions please.

Overall, I really did enjoy the movie better, but I will forever continue to think reading the book first is better- for me at least.  I do not judge, but I do encourage!  My personal examples of really bad adaptations (my own opinion, of course) include "the Virgin Suicides", the Da Vinci Code" and "the Golden Compass".  Really amazing adaptations are "Pride and Prejudice" BBC version, Harry Potter and "Lord of the Rings".  What are your best and worst??? 

Reading provides an opportunity to create in your own mind characters, places, sounds, even tone of voice.  There's nothing worse than buying a book after the movie comes out and seeing the famous actors/actresses on the cover- you can never imagine them any different!  That is why I choose a book over the movie first- I want my opinion of the characters to matter.  I want to shape a story, whether I wrote it or not.  Books can teach you so much about yourself, if you simply let your creativity lead you.  What characters take on aspects of people you know in real life, and what does that mean?  When you take sides in a literary conflict, why?  Who do you imagine a romantic hero or heroine to be like and what does that tell you about your own future loves?  Ahh, books.  Can you tell I love them?  :)