hilarious notes from a big country ...

Well, as you all know, we have to read the book “Notes from a big Country” written by Bill Bryson. 

If you haven’t started yet, you absolutely should do so! I absolutely loved the book and in the end I wanted to read even more.

For me that’s what it’s all about. A really good writer leaves the reader longing for more and more.

I admire his cynical and ironic way of describing typical daily situations. I found myself more than just once laughing out loud because of how striking his explanations were.

Most of all I liked the story about “Enough Already” simply because I could have written it myself. I have the heartwarming

feeling that finally there is someone saying what I am thinking. I could have been the one trying desperately to choose between thirty-five varieties of tooth-paste or all other products mentioned. Sometimes I find myself lost in big supermarket aisles wondering what the difference is between “Somat Tab 9” and “Somat Tab 10”. Number Nine worked perfectly fine, how could Number Ten possibly get my dishes cleaner than clean? As Bill Bryson is claiming the abundance of choice breeds dissatisfaction. After leaving the supermarket I feel frustrated because it took me so long to find what I need. On top of that, how can I ever be sure to have picked the right product perfectly fitting to my circumstances? Once finding me stuck in these superfluous thoughts, I decided to no longer care. I ignore sales assistants who extol the newest and improved products. Some might call me rude for saying “No I am not interested in it”. I would consider it as an essential to life measure helping me to save time and to keep calm while other people lose their temper because of listening to someone explaining the very important difference between “Tab 9” and “Tab 10”.

Thrilling, Captivation, Swedish

In 2011 I have been to Stockholm for one week together with one of my best friends. But I don’t want to write about this city. No. I want to write about the REASON why we went on this trip.

 So we chose Stockholm because we have read the “Millennium series” just some month ago. As I don’t expect all of you to know what the “Millennium series” is, I want to tell you shortly what it’s all about. In fact, that’s a series of 3 books written by the Swedish (unfortunately he is dead by now) author Stieg Larsson. 

 
The whole story is about Lisbeth Salander, a woman in her twenties with a photographic memory and poor social skills, and Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist and editor of a magazine called “Millennium”. Both are living in Stockholm and they meet for the first time when Mikael Blomkvist is invited to meet Henrik Vanger, the retired CEO of the Vangar Corporation. Officially he is asked to write the Vanger family history, but really for discovering what happened to Harriet, the grandchild of Mr. Henrik Vanger. He believes her to have been killed by a family member 36 years ago. While searching through the evidence, Blomkvist decides that he needs a research assistant, and Vanger's lawyer suggests Lisbeth Salander. At that time she works for Milton Security as a hacker.

 
Then the story goes on and believe me it is thrilling!! I couldn’t even stop reading for one day! I was captivated!

The books are crime novels and for me they are the best ones I have ever read! It’s about death, love, conspiracies, sexual harassment against women and much more.
The Swedish film production company Yellow Bird created excellent film versions of the Millennium Trilogy. They were all released in 2009.

Since 2011 there exists a Hollywood adaptation of the book.
Personally, I think that the Swedish movies are way better than the Hollywood production but that’s purely a matter of opinion.
If you want to read a really good book, I recommend you to read these three. If you don’t like reading, just watch the films. They are awesome!

In Stockholm we had the chance to buy a map especially created for all these Millennium Freaks like us. We followed the map to all the places mentioned in the book located in Stockholm. It was like being part of the book :) 

Even the City Museum of Stockholm dedicates a part of the building to Stieg Larsson and his famous books.