By Aileen McElroy

To celebrate the anticipated May 25 release of Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” the Globe Corner Bookstore in Harvard Square threw a breakfast party with Swedish delicacies for devoted fans of the international bestselling trilogy series.

“Our customers kept asking every day, every other question was when will Stieg Larsson’s latest title be available,” explained bookseller Lisa Peterson. “We thought we’d do something like what was done in book stores with the midnight release of the ‘Harry Potter’ series and decided a breakfast release party here would work nice.”

Last Tuesday, diehard fans of the quirky heroine Lisbeth and hard-core journalist Mikael, took advantage of the Cambridge shop’s early 7:30 a.m. opening, grabbing a discounted copy of Larsson’s book three and indulging in a mini Swedish smorgasbord —a spread of crisps and Scandinavian cheeses, berry juice, Icelandic Spring water and a scrumptious blueberry bread before bustling to work.

“The blueberry bread was actually made from a recipe in Aquavit, Marcus Samuelsson’s cookbook,” said Peterson.

While ringing purchases, booksellers tucked book 3 in a tote bag containing extra goodies, colorful and temporary dragon and wasp tattoos.

Peterson, who is of Norwegian descent, remembers initially getting hooked on Larsson’s book 1 “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” while visiting friends in Sweden.

“I would read the books during my friends’ classes,” she said. “The books have the same popularity in Sweden as well.”

She said that the wild success of Larsson’s mystery thrillers in the States is self-evident, noting on her way to work, many T commuters clutching Larsson’s signature neon-covered books of yellow, orange and green. Larsson’s books have also raised newfound curiosity in Sweden’s geography.

“A lot of fans have come into the shop and studied our maps on Sweden to get a better idea of the metro system that is discussed in the book,” said Peterson.

With Larsson’s books topping the bestseller list and to meet the heightening interest in everything Swedish, the Globe Corner Bookstore that shelves everything from “Boston Noir” to “The Secret History of Mongol Queens” is spotlighting Scandinavia as the June destination of the month discounting guides, maps, historical titles and literature throughout June.

As staff picks, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played with Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” are all offered at 20 percent off.

“Everyone on the staff has read Larsson’s books and we all love them,” said Peterson. “The characters are so interesting. Everyone likes to read about spies and computer hacks. I’m usually not a murder mystery person but I’m a definite fan of the books.”

For more information on the Globe Corner Bookstore, please visit globecornerbookstore.com

In related news, several unpublished manuscripts by the late and now famous writer Steig Larsson were found stuffed into a periodical at a Stockholm library recently: http://www.nordstjernan.com/news/education|research/2363/