I was listening to a podcast while washing up, one of my favourites – smodcast – and they were talking about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I got interested in reading it. This is the first time I have ever been even remotely interested in reading it. I’m not really sure why that is. It’s not a genre I usually read but I have never really known a great deal about it. Prior to listening to that podcast all I really knew about it was that it was incredibly successful, but somehow that fact alone wasn’t enough to entice me. In an odd way it’s almost like it was so visible that it became invisible. Every time I went into the bookshop I would see it and never think to pick it up and look at it. I often steal a look at what other people on the train are reading and I have seen a lot of people reading it, but it just never occurred to me that I might enjoy it.
All the posters that I have walked past at train stations, all the TV ads for the movie adaptations; it’s like they just became wallpaper. I don’t think it’s snobbery that caused me to ignore it, I don’t remember ever looking at it and thinking that I won’t read it. But somehow the fact that it sold millions didn’t suggest that I might enjoy it. And it should have. It should at least have caused me to look into it a little and find out what it’s all about. So I’m going to. When I get further down my to-read pile I’m going to read it. I’m quite excited about it too, in a funny way. Same as I was last year when I read The Black Dahlia. These aren’t the books that I really love, they aren’t the books that I talk enthusiastically about, they aren’t the books I re-visit, they aren’t the books I keep on the shelf forever; but they are pretty bloody cool every once in a while.
toby wallis 