Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Do you have any special traditions for the night? One of the best bookworm-focused traditions of the time I’ve heard of is in Iceland. They exchange books and spend the night curled up reading. It’s known as Jolabokaflod, or “Christmas Book Flood.”
It’s so ingrained in their culture that most of Iceland’s book-buying happens between September and December, in preparation for the Christmas tradition.
Much like days gone by where (at least in the US) the Sears Catalog or the Toys R Us Big Toy Book were long-anticipated publications each year, most households in Iceland receive an annual free book catalog of new publications called the Bokatidindi. They’ll pore over the new releases and choose which ones they want to buy in anticipation of the holiday tradition – and maybe some for themselves.
According to data from the BBC, the small Nordic island with a population of only around 329,000, is an extraordinarily literary place. They love to read and write, and have more writers, more books published, and more books read per capita than anywhere else in the world.
It sounds like I have a lot of reading and writing to do!
What is your favorite book? Or favorite genre? Let’s talk on Facebook!