Just back from a week in Sweden

In case you've been wondering why I haven't posted for a week, I've been in Sweden with my good friends Mikael Blomkvist and Lisabeth Salander.

It was my second visit. My first was in 1972. I was about to enter my last year of college and I was there for, at most, 20 minutes. I was in Copenhagen, Denmark, and my Eurail pass entitled me to a free ride on the ferry to Malmo, where I had a slice of pizza and got to add one more stamp to my passport. But I digress.

OK, so I wasn't physically in Sweden last week. I was in Connecticut, my butt planted in the big green easy chair I share with my dachshunds, reading Stieg Larrson's Millennium trilogy of books, which are set in Sweden.

Though nearly 100 million copies have been sold worldwide, I hadn't read them, because a.) they are novels and I prefer non-fiction  b.) I was for some inexplicable reason under the impression they were chick lit and c.) the title of the first book in the trilogy is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I don't like tattoos on girls. So why, I reasoned, would I want to read books in which the heroine is a goth who is covered with them?


Sixteen hundred pages later, I'm here to tell you the books are fantastic. Among the best novels I've ever read.

Summer's here, folks. Beach time. Hammock time. Time to lose yourself in a good book or two or three.

If you haven't read 'em yet, do yourself a favor and buy the books or download them on your "device." (I love that word.)

Skol!