HOW TO LIVE ICELANDIC

by Nina Björk Jónsdóttir and Edda Magnus

White Lion Publishing, 2021

ISBN 978-0-7112-6737-4

Be warned: the table of contents of this charming, funny book works as an index for you if all you want is instant information, but whatever you look up to read, you’ll keep on reading, and laughing. The authors have been friends since they were schoolgirls and though each has travelled and worked abroad and Edda lives in Geneva with her husband and two children, they are still close. They are godmothers to each others’ first borns, and together they have written this book. It’s a labour of love. They thank their friends for advice and information and also for being so photogenic.

Actually, the table of contents really will work well as an index/guide to a subsequent book. Each category—chapter?— deals separately with labelled sections, so it will be easy to update one or two without rewriting them all. For example, in the chapter on Holidays and Celebrations, the section, Rotten Fish—an Icelandic Festive Favourite—perhaps hints that the custom may not last much longer.

“…some people may think of it as a delicacy. Others don’t consider it food at all. The flavour is quite unique but it could be likened to a cheese that is so strong that it brings tears to your eyes and melts the mucous membrane in your mouth!”

It is a guidebook with reliable information. I guess the writers can’t help it that a lot about Iceland is funny. Also impressive, awesome, intriguing and unique. You have to be there.

LIVE!

And read the book .

A BOOK REVIEW

HOW ICELAND CHANGED THE WORLD,

The Big History of a Small Island

by Egill Bjarnason

Penguin Books, USA 3rd Printing

ISBN 9780143135883 (paperback)

How much time do you have?

This book is so factual and so entertaining that it’s going to take you a while to read, full of information you thought you already knew but with a twist, maybe, and certainly with new insights. I read the book a few weeks ago and I was all set to write the review but I made the mistake of taking the time to refresh my memory of Egill’s expertise and style, both surprising.

You do know that I am not being disrespectful of the author; Icelanders are always referred to by their first name. Most of them, Egill included, will explain to you the use of the patronymic, and also, more recently, of the matronymic, for the “surname”. Everyone gets listed twice in the Icelandic phone book, separately by first and last name. It’s a good thing the population is so small, else it would be a cumbersome book. Egill’s book, too, has proved to be cumbersome, that is, time-consuming, for a different reason--because I want to re-read it right now.

It took me a long time to write this much. I want to tell you everything but then why would you bother to read the book? And you should read it, if only to clarify your own thinking--and maybe to settle a few arguments with friends. Iceland has been pivotal in our (all of our) history for 1200 years. Egill deals with the French Revolution, the Cold War, the moon landing, a couple of significant volcanic eruptions with far-reaching effects, the Chess-Board War between the United States (29-year-old Bobby Fischer) and the Soviet Union (24-years-straight-winner Boris Spassky), the financial crisis in 2008, and the foundation of Israel. Among other things.

Hard to condense, but easy to enjoy. In his acknowledgements Egill is grateful to recognize his editors’ efforts to limit his allowance of bad jokes. I enjoyed them all.