The weather in Bilbao, Spain was lousy the three weeks I was there recently. Two Friday's ago, another faculty member gave me a copy of a novel called "The Girl That Played With Fire." I started it at 2 pm that Friday afternoon and by noon Saturday I had read all 640 pages. I rarely read novels, and I don't recall ever finishing one in a day.

Unfortunately, the book she gave me was the second book in a three book series. Ugh. So the following Monday I made a trek to Bilbao to find one of the few stores that sold books in English and payed WAY too much for the first book in the series, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo."  I also read it's 600 plus pages in a single day.

There is an AMAZING bookstore two buildings down from my dorm here in Spain called Waterstones. The place is massive and the collection of books is impressive. Today I bought the final book in the series, "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest." It is 743 pages long, and I doubt I will finish it in one day.

Oddly enough, I don't think the first two books were that great. I am surprised that they have become such huge bestsellers. But, I have read two novels in two days, something I have never done before in my life, so there is more to it than just having lots of time on my hands. The stories in each had some gaping flaws, but they were nonetheless very compelling. But what hooks you in these books are the characters Stieg Larsson has crafted, namely that darn Lisbeth Salander and her buddy Mikael Blomkvist. In between consuming tons of coffee and sandwiches (which we now know must be big in Sweden), they are very interesting as they solve mysteries and chase some very bad men.

I read novels only once every few years, and despite the fact that they really are not all that good, I am enjoying the heck out of these.