Iceland is famous for having a very high level of reading, and I saw plenty of evidence of this. Reykyavik’s core has a half-dozen fairly large bookstores, well stocked with both Icelandic and English books, and they are always crowded. A Canadian city of this size would be lucky to have one. I visited a second-hand bookstore, and marvelled at the large selection of old books in Icelandic, dating back to the early 19th century, when the population of the island was tiny. These included both translations of the world’s output, but quite a lot of original works in Icelandic. My will-power broke down, and I purchased a two-volume set of Sagas. These are useless to me, as they are in Icelandic, but they are beautiful, and I rationalized the purchase as the visible souvenir of my trip that will look at me handsomely from my bookshelf. Perhaps a wandering Icelandic scholar will drop by and read them.
Saturday, September 1, 2012 — Reykjavik’s Bookstores
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