Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country in the world, with five titles published for every 1,000 Icelanders. But what’s really unusual is the timing: Historically, a majority of books in Iceland are sold from late September to early November. It’s a national tradition, and it has a name: Jolabokaflod, or the “Christmas Book Flood.”
This is rather fascinating, an article on NPR about the Christmas Book Flood phenomenon in Iceland. How wonderful to live in such a bookish culture!
Happy Christmas to those celebrating today; happy arbitrary-day-off-work to fellow atheists. :)
Hugs and good cheer,
Alex
December 26, 2012 at 00:21
The info about Iceland is absolutely fascinating. I always marvel at how many bookshops and Tasmanian books there are for our little island of 500.000 here but that is most encouraging. Too bad the whole world doesn’t toss out the t.v. sets and bring in more and more books! haha. All the very best to you and yours and I look very much forward to your reading excursions into 2013. Pam
December 26, 2012 at 18:10
Less TV and more books, yes! Thanks Pam, I’ve loved discovering your blog this year. :)