Jolabokaflod

 Yes, I love my native United States.  But I sometimes wonder what kind of person I would have turned out to be if I had been born and raised somewhere else.

Like, perhaps, Iceland.

Who knows, but with all the times I dreamed of the midnight sun as a child, I may have had a previous life somewhere in the northlands.  

The 2017 Great American Eclipse, and its tie with sweet tea and Iceland.

There was last year's Postcard from Iceland, too.  

All I need to do to visit Iceland (now that COVID restrictions are a thing of the past, hopefully) is conquer my fear of flying (and spending too much money).

Of all the things that intrigue me about Iceland, about the most intriguing is the Jolabokaflod, the Christmas Book Flood.

I've known about the custom from various Facebook postings, but this blog post reminded me of it. 

Can I imagine a country where the holiday season begins with the arrival of the Bokatidindi (Book Bulletin), a catalog of every book published that year in the country?  Can a book lover like me even begin to imagine?  Maybe it's like the Sears catalogs of my youth but full of books instead of home goods and clothes?

This website discusses what happens next.  Basically, the custom is to have their main Christmas meal on Christmas Eve.  Along with the meal, they drink Malt og Appelsín (a soft drink that includes orangeade) and then it's time for gift giving.  Book gift giving, that is.  People give books to each other on Christmas Eve, and spend the evening (and maybe the rest of the year) reading their gifts.

I've read that 93% of the residents of Iceland read at least one book a year, and an Icelander averages 2.4 books a month.  I'm not sure what my count is, but I know several bloggers who read a lot more than I do.  Not only that, but I've read that one out of 10 Icelanders publish at least one book in their lifetimes.

Now, that's a country I can get into.

Can I imagine a Christmas Eve book exchange? 

Would you?