Jolabokaflod – The Christmas Book Flood: A Beloved Icelandic Tradition
Christmas Book Flood
If Christmas is around the corner, Icelandic publishing houses will release hundreds of new titles onto the Icelandic book market. This commences a unique tradition known as the jólabókaflóð, or the Christmas Book Flood. During this bustling and much-anticipated yearly event, bookstores across Iceland resemble miniature concert venues. Icelandic authors of all genres read from and promote their latest work. This transforms the holiday season into an extended city-wide literary festival.
The Birth of the Tradition
This Christmas Book Flood as a tradition was born out of scarcity during the Word War 2, when the restrictions on imports to Iceland were harsh. But these limitations did not apply to the local book market, so the tradition of exchanging books during the holidays naturally arose as a result. With a tiny population of just over 330,000, Iceland’s publishing industry has, until very recently, lacked the resources to publish and distribute new books all year round, making the Book Flood a practical marketing strategy as well as a treasured tradition.
Many Icelanders will publish a piece of writing in one form or another during their lifetime (a book, a newspaper article, a poetry collection, etc.). Oh, and they also read more books per capita than any other people in the world.
Wow! I would love to be there, if for nothing else, at least to get published… But seriously, isn’t it cool that the reading tradition is still very much alive and kicking in this day. In this age of content being made shorter and shorter and shorter? And reading going seriously out of fashion among the digital generation?
Read about the other interesting aspects of travel to Iceland here.
Interested in traveling to Iceland? Check out some of our Iceland itineraries here.
For ideas on experiential travel to Europe, Asia and Africa, visit Beyonder Travel.
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