Book Vs Movie: The Girl Who Played With Fire

“Power is a flame that burns from within…”

I finished reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in February (you can check my review in here), and all of those who have read the book would know that the book leaves us at a bit of a cliffhanger at the end to ensure you’ll pick up The Girl Who Played With Fire to find out what happens to the heroine, Lisebeth Salander next. And by now, it wouldn’t be news to most of you all that the Millennium Trilogy is a series which dwells around strong social critique and conspiracy, which exposes the state of the morally bankrupt world of business in the first book, and misogyny and damage done to women by corrupted philanderers in here.

(This post doesn’t contain spoilers, so you can keep on reading, yet, I’d recommend you all to read the book or watch the movie first!)

Jumping straight into the book, I must say in this book also the opening was not much into my preference. Yes, the whole escapade of Salander in Grenada did enhance the character building of her’s to a whole new level, from a tattooed, pierced, bisexual computer hacker to a mathematical genius, who would try tackling Fermat’s Last Theorem while having her morning coffee. Yet, conversely, this methodical background detailing would go overboard at times and hinder the story, making it dull to be read. Anyhow, after that the story lives up to its predecessor, unraveling the real masterminds behind the three murders, for which the incompetent caricatures of the police make Salander the prime suspect, and also portraying the depths eminent public figures who are rapists and sexual criminals, would go to cover their tracks. So, overall, although the book disappointed me at first, I’d give it 5 stars (to the book).

Next, turning to the movie, I’d say this time the movie was not much of a disappointment when compared with its predecessor. True it had abandoned the whole Grenada hurricane catastrophe scene, nevertheless, it stays faithful to the book in most scenarios, reminding us the books of law don’t mean anything unless they could be translated into lived experience, while bringing the events of Salander’s childhood and traumas to live. Yet, I must also admit that I found the absurd scene where Salander asks for the help of Mikael to be unbelievably hilarious!!!

And now its time to pick the winner.

To me,  the winner is the The Girl Who Played With Fire book, which very much delineates the quote “Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less” by Susan B. Anthony.

Do share your thoughts, in line with me or not?

Book Vs Movie: Confessions of a Shopaholic

Everyone deserves a break now and then.

Everyone who is on study leave trying to learn the ropes of their respective subjects and instructing themselves to breathe, everyone who has been drowned in a 650 page bulky book like ‘Wolf Hall’ and trying to convince oneself to ignore the loud screaming: “You are bored with that book, pick me, pick me”, coming from one’s wardrobe to-be-read book collection, even more deserve it.

And that’s when the let-me-take-all-your-tense-away magic predominantly created by chick lit writers like Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot and Lauren Weisberger and, their ‘for fellas only’ notion of writing style wrapped by entertaining rock’n’roll scenes come into play.

Shopping is one exercise all of us women embrace with much enthusiasm and glee. Well, glee may be a little bit overstating because there could always be a ‘guilty pleasure’ linked into it, but it leaves the element of enthusiasm involved untenable, even when all you do is stumbling upon a blog which swirls around fashion like SIXTHIRTYTHREE. Moving into compulsive shopping itself, it is the step higher of ‘normal’ shopping, whose superficial fashion victims are invariably females, which is the theme reinforced in Sophie Kinsella’s book; Confessions of a Shopaholic.

This book unravels around one such victim, Rebecca Bloomwood, a distinctive financial journalist who works for ‘Successful Saving’ magazine and who can not simply resist a bargain because she justifies all her purchases as investments! This book also sheds light to an acute problem; the non-existence of the distinction between creative choice (choice which reflects your inner soul) and consumer choice (choice you make out of the choices offered). Over the years the progression of the advertising field has been such that now they have imbued the creative choice and the consumer choice are pretty much the same to our systems. They convince us what we need and deceive us fabricating our desire for something which we would not have bought otherwise. When doing this whether these goods are affordable to their customer is the last thing they have in their mind. Sometimes they even add a flair into their course in the form of discounts, and allure women like fireflies who get attracted to light to make frivolous purchases. Hence this book is a good testimony of the female physic on consumerism in the modern-day.

Having pointed out the plus side of the book I must also admit that I found the scenario where Luke Brandon, a high prolific business tycoon whose company is employed by Flagstaff Life, another major investment company to maintain their public profile, states he doesn’t agree with some of the activities Flagstaff Life has undertaken or has been acknowledged of them in public to be uncanny. I’m confused if the lack of awareness is a justifiable argument a person at his level could bring up and if his actions abide to professional behavior. Apart from that the book is an enjoyable light read which meets the chick lit standards and it gets two stars from me.

Now turning into the movie, this adoption is different from the original story, but that is in an appealing way similar to the adoption of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. Certain scenes have been removed, certain characters have been dismissed, and some have been portrayed differently, but the movie is about the same savvy yet naive and amiable Rebecca who ultimately ends up bankrupt due to the ramification of her excessive consumption patterns. Highlight of the movie is the article Rebecca writes using the by-line ‘The Girl in the Green Scarf’ after realizing the scarf she purchased spending a huge sum of money is not 100% cashmere, which exposes us to think of the rigor of brand name consumerism. After it, it is the typical boy-meets-girl-and-then-happy-ending story.

Now the winner? Hmm, this time I’m going to claim there’s no winner. But if you are ready for some fluffy, silly series of escapade, I can promise you that both will serve the purpose!

WOW! The Things We Can Do With Books Besides Reading Them!

I’m a big fan of abstract art and nail art!

Forest Preservation – Art by me!

This is not by me! But I’m planning to get something similar done!

Somewhere around in 2010 I accidentally stumbled upon BOOK ART!

As a book lover there’s nothing which could make me happy as much as the fetish patterns and textures, vibrant as well as mellow that book art creates! (Okay! Now that’s just ‘figure of speech’!)

Anyway, that is why I want to introduce you all to this porn-site which I’ve been rigorously following for a while!

Hahaaaa! There’s nothing to be ashamed of! It’s just a Bookshelf Porn site!

Taking ideas from it when I build my own house one day, I’m hopefully going to have…

a reading room

a living room

wall art

and bookshelves

… like these!

As site description suggests, Bookshelf Porn is

Porn for book lovers. A photo blog collection of all the best bookshelf photos from around the world for people who *heart* bookshelves.

So there is no doubt having a glance at this best porn-site ever is worthy of your time!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and study to be rich enough to own all these!

Till I upload photos of my own, you can enjoy this!

Book Vs Movie: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

 

 

 

Vs.

 

 

 

When I bought The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I was equipped with the knowledge that the book is massively hyped, even though it is not what caught me under its spell. In fact it’s the dragon TATTOO of the girl what made me cave in and pick the book. At that time I had no clue this girl is Stieg Larsson’s agent to remind us that there are certain things in life to which we turn a blind eye. One more casualty of sexual assault,  one more victim of social cannibalism, one more person in pain because of unfair jurisdiction, we sure do catch a glimpse from our peripheral vision. May be it’s because we are overloaded that we have become numb enough to hear but not listen and to look but not see the most of it. Anyway, it is only one of the reasons which makes the book/ movie commendable! So digging further in to the story…

(Sorry, but from here onwards this post contains spoilers. If you haven’t read the book or watched the movie, PLEASE, stop right here, go read the book or watch the movie and come back again!)

… I can tell you that I thought it’s one explosive, monster of a thriller imbued with incredibly fascinating and unique characterization. Since you all may have read the novel or watched the movie, and already know how the combination of Mikael Blomkvist’s insistent journalism skills and Lisbeth Salander’s quite unconventional information gathering methods lead them towards discovering the gruesome history behind Vanger family, I’ll focus on the comparison of the book and the movie and try to come up with a winner!

First of all, I won’t deny that most of the readers would have found the first few chapters of the book to be extremely dull the way Stieg Larsson chose to describe Mikael’s libel trial. Given my accounting background, I thought it helps to encompass the characters, the situations they face and the way they are related, deeply. But most could have grown bored thinking it’s going to be a story about financial corruption. So according to my thinking, that start was definitely not the best way to make the readers stay excited! Anyway, after uncovering the novel’s strength –  Harriet’s mystery, in such an interesting and a shocking way, the book gets back in track from where it started, and devotes the last few chapters to describe how Mikael takes revenge from Wennerstrom, an industrial giant who falsely accuses Mikael of producing a slanderous article, again with the help of  indomitable Lisbeth. So, overall, despite poor choice Larsson had made at the beginning, I’d give five stars to this piece of writing.

And now moving to the movie, Lisbeth Salander’s characterization which makes the novel interesting, was pretty much lost in here. The sullen, anti-social and people skills lacking Salander is not much portrayed. And the reckless way Salander sends information to Mikael, making it obvious that she is a hacker when he has no idea who she is, is an insult done to her character, I dare say, specially when later in the movie Mikael suggests that Salander could be having a photographic memory in possession. Apart from the several plots which stretch credulity to a certain extend, the way it exposes to viewers how Salander becomes an enactor of justice, taking the matters into her hand, and resolving them in a way perhaps disturbing and disgusting, but undeniably fair and fitting compels viewers to confront their own ideas about the treatment meted out to the women in the society.

The winner? Although I like the movie, to me, ultimately the winning “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” is the book, which pares the story down to its core. Now give me your thoughts. Which do you prefer the best?

Hello There!

I decided to take a break from all the studying for CIMA and procrastinating. In fact, I lost my train of thought somewhere down the line. But I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to end with “I’m blogging!” So, here I am…

Hmmm… Did I tell you the week just ended was so not good for me? Well, I got my CIMA strategic level exam results and I failed all 3 subjects! The good thing is my parents didn’t decide to bury me alive and dance on my grave! Anyway, it was a HUGE wake up call. And I hope to do better next time! So keep your fingers crossed to hear me venting around May!

Honestly, much to my own dismay, even though I started to write this, today I have nothing much to blog about! Life is uneventful right now and I know, ‘Shame on me’! So I’ll just share some photos with you, of the five kinds of English books I have at home. (Apart from my most cherished books!)

#01 – My father’s books. Almost all of them are second-hand!

#02 – Books my mother bought for me when I was small, which I never read, because I used to hate English back then! (For me, Elocution classes meant torture! So I merrily doodled around till I turned 11! That year my father started to read a Secret Seven book for me but never completed it, compelling me to learn English to know how the story ends. Before that I could swear to god, I don’t think I knew the alphabet even!)

#03 – Books I bought by myself, but never bothered to read because I bought them only to show-off!

#04 – Books I abandoned reading half way through.

And finally,

(Drum roll please!)

#05 – Books I’ve hidden on the side of my wardrobe to be read when I run out-of-pocket money to buy books! (I know, I’m still cool! Just like a squirrel who stores food for Winter!)

Does anyone out there also have the 5th kind of books or am I the only crazy person who needs to completely shut down and pull back into my ninja turtle shell?

Let me know, please!

Cos if you are also my kind, I want to get back to you and say,