I finished reading The Redeemer the day before yesterday. (Yes, I do go through books rather quickly at times.)
And then last night I started reading “Phantom,” Jo Nesbo’s most recent “Harry Hole” book, which my sister recently found at Copperfield’s – signed by the author no less! She most generously is letting me read it ahead of her since she’s currently reading something else. But before starting to read it, I decided to go back and skim through the two books that go in between “The Redeemer” and “Phantom” so that I could remember what happened and be “up to date.”
It was great to read “The Redeemer” because it explains some things that were a mystery when I had to read “The Snowman” and The Leopard before this one was available; it answered some questions. Now I just hope I can remember where things were left off after The Leopard! I read these back in December.
I sure love these books! I do wish they would get them translated faster though! One thing I especially like about these books is that they are written so cleverly and the author is obviously very intelligent. He can be quite profound at times – uncommon in your “typical” murder mystery, or at least that’s how it seems to me. And before I return The Redeemer to the library, I just want to make note of a few things I marked in the book:
The main character, Harry Hole, says:
“… You soon become lonely if you want to use your own brain to find answers.”and:
“I have problems with a religion which says that faith in itself is enough for a ticket to heaven. In other words, that the ideal is your ability to manipulate your own common sense to accept something your intellect rejects. It’s the same model of intellectual submission that dictatorships have used throughout time, the concept of a higher reasoning without any obligation to discharge the burden of proof.” ‘AMEN,’ is what I say to that (and I added the emphasis).
Another rather “profound” thing Harry says:
“I’ve never been able to understand how women have the courage to share roof and bed with those who are, physically, their complete masters. …Men would never dare.” (This is probably quite true, although I’ve never really thought about it like that.)
And finally, just a little “tip” that I was not aware of [although in California it is probably not as useful as it might be in Oslo, Norway]: “Since 90 percent of the energy of a light bulb is heat, the electricity you save by turning them off would be counterbalanced by the radiators compensating for the heat loss. Simple physics.”
Very cool this guy is.