I visited my folks in England recently. It has been almost two years since I saw them (mum and stepdad – now just ‘dad’). The last time so much time passed between seeing them was when we first moved to Greenland.
Ah, corona!
But regardless of it being a great trip, that’s not what this post is about.
Since Brexit I have stopped buying books.
I used to buy a lot of books, especially second-hand books that were out of print. But when the UK left the EU everything suddenly got really expensive, especially if I had it sent from the UK to Denmark. Anything bigger than a postcard (more or less) gets slapped with a 150,- kroner charge for the letter the Danish postal service sends when informing you of a parcel from a so-called “third country”.
Yep.
England, and the rest of the countries comprising the UK, is considered a third country.
Where am I going with this?
Taaqtumi is where I’m going!
I wanted to buy this book a few times, and I wanted it in my hands – not digital this time! So I bought it to coincide with my trip to England.
It’s a gorgeous book (full of raven illustrations) collecting several short horror stories, set in the Arctic, written by Inuit writers.
I read the first story last night.
Good story. Very atmospheric. Fun to read.
In fact, it was really fun to read.
All the Inuktitut words – very similar to Greenlandic in spelling and pronunciation – were written in italics (most of them, anyway). I had this weird sensation of reading my kind of book, i.e. the kind of book I like to read, and the kind of book I like to write. So, even though I haven’t got very far yet, I’m loving this book for a whole bunch of reasons!
Chris
Denmark has, in my opinion, one of the best library systems in the world. I’m not sure “systems” is the right word, but everything is connected. All the libraries are connected. I can order something from the database, and it might be plucked from the Royal Danish Air Force library and sent to my local library to be picked up. I’ve ordered articles from old newspapers and a librarian scans it and sends me the PDF. I can watch 100 films or documentaries every month, and borrow the DVDs of those films not available for streaming. CDs, board games, computer games – anything you want, and more, when you’re not careful. Like the time I thought it would be interesting to read Sir Richard Burton’s notes from 1001 Arabian Nights. Well, they arrived, all 13 volumes, but they were so old I had to read them at the library.