My second time around with Lisbeth and Blomkvist. Someone should do a study some day about why we are pulled to certain books at certain times - the way our body pulls us toward a banana when it's running low on potassium. One of the things I loved about Larsson when I first read him (and why I return to him) is this kind of artlessness that he has about writing. There's a naturalness to the way he tells the story as if the important thing is giving you the facts as expediently as possible. Of course, the facts of the story also include what he thinks is interesting about the characters thoughts, feelings, personal history. You get drawn in by this sense that author is being guided in his narration by an instinct, a scent for what is interesting to him (which he assumes will probably be interesting to you as well) and also by what you sense as his delight in discovering the very thing he's writing about as he is writing it. After he died, his life-long partner wrote that Larsson wrote his trilogy as a hobby. He was bored and wanted something fun to do. Can you imagine? I think that's why I am so attracted to his books and why I go back to them as a source of inspiration for my own writing. How beautiful to write with the passion and interest that a hobby draws from us. Yes, literature and art give meaning to our lives and there are serious messages in Larsson's books and tons of darkness. But I think his inventiveness with plot, his ability to mix reality with fiction, his creation of characters we will never forget starts with the playfulness and joy of a man finally finding a little bit of time to be alone with his hobby.