National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month. Take time to enjoy reading your favorite poems this month.

The following poem was written by Robert Louis Stevenson. For your reading entertainment:

The Land of Story-books

At evening when the lamp is lit,
Around the fire my parents sit;
They sit at home and talk and sing,
And do not play at anything.
Now, with my little gun, I crawl
All in the dark along the wall,
And follow round the forest track
Away behind the sofa back.
There, in the night, where none can spy,
All in my hunter's camp I lie,
And play at books that I have read
Till it is time to go to bed.
These are the hills, these are the woods,
These are my starry solitudes;
And there the river by whose brink
The roaring lions come to drink.
I see the others far away
As if in firelit camp they lay,
And I, like to an Indian scout,
Around their party prowled about.
So, when my nurse comes in for me,
Home I return across the sea,
And go to bed with backward looks
At my dear land of Story-books.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Admittedly I enjoy a good mystery. However, finding one to read can be a mystery itself at times. At my last visit to Borders Book Store the clerk recommended The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson. According to the clerk this book has outsold the Bible in Sweden and they can’t keep it on the shelves at Borders. Even though the clerk had not read the book, he understood it was comparable to an Agatha Christie novel. By the way, Agatha Christie is one of my favorite mystery writers.

First, let me warn you. This book receives an R rating from me. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo takes place in Sweden. The author graphically describes an assault on the character Lisbeth Salander. In my opinion, an author can leave some events to the reader’s imagination and be as effective as spelling it out. Mr. Larson chose not to. Apparently, the Swedish culture is very open in regards to intimate relationships and infidelity. Thus many women become victims of crimes with little or no avenues of justice. This society provides the backdrop for the story’s events.

Mr. Larson attempts to distract the reader with an enormous amount of background history regarding the Vanger family. The basic plot is about a wealthy corporate industrialist whose niece vanishes twenty years earlier. Before the patriarch dies, he wants one last attempt to find his beloved niece. Investigating his niece’s disappearance has become an obsession to him throughout the years.Henrik Vanger hires a journalist, Mikael Blomkvist to poke around his dysfunctional family in order to find some resolution. Mikael Blomkvist eventually meets social outcast/computer hacker extraodinaire, Lisbeth Salander. Together they solve the case.

To compare this book to Agatha Christie’s writing is a stretch. Mechanically there may be some similarities. Larson utilizes Blomkvist and Salander as his detective solving team. Christie used Hercule Poirot and Hastings as her’s. As far as I’m concerned the similarities end there. And I’m still looking for a good mystery to read.