The Little Book of the Icelanders

The Little Book of the Icelanders has now been published by Forlagið, Iceland’s largest publisher, in physical form. Also, the book now has its own Facebook page, where I continue to add little bits of random info about the Icelandic people. 

If you wish to order the physical version of the book, please click here. Unfortunately the Forlagið website is only in Icelandic, but instructions on how to order are available here.

About the book:

In 1994, I moved back to Iceland after more than 20 years of living abroad, and ever since I have been in the enviable [to me!] position of being both an insider and an outsider in Icelandic society.

I figure this makes me sufficiently qualified to dissect the national psyche of the Icelandic people.

 

Among the fascinating subjects broached in The Little Book of the Icelanders:

• the appalling driving habits of the Icelanders
• naming conventions and customs
• the Icelanders’ profound fear of commitment
• the Icelander’s penchant for irreverence
• why Icelandic women are really men
• how the Icelanders manage to make social interactions really complicated
• the importance of the family in Icelandic society
• where to go to meet the real Icelanders [and possibly score some free financial advice]
• Rituals associated with weddings, confirmations, graduations, and deaths

… and many, many more.

The Little Book of the Icelanders is an electronic download and costs USD 24.99. Please note that, if you wish to read the book on your computer, you will need Adobe Digital Editions - you cannot read it with Adobe Reader. The good news is that ADE, like Adobe Reader, is free and easy to use. You can download it here.

Please note that this is not a traditional book printed on paper, but a book for reading on an eReader or on your computer [or for printing out on a regular printer].

[See instructions for buying and a a bit more about the pricing, below.]

CLICK HERE TO BUY:

 

 

 

We’ve had excellent responses to the book!

Iceland Review online, Iceland’s longest-established English-language website, gives the book four stars out of five:

One chapter leads to the next, creating a continuous chain of storytelling. It feels as if you’re sitting in the author’s kitchen, enjoying a cup of coffee and conversing with her about the quirks of her countrymen, every now and then bursting out laughing. [...] I’m going to heartily recommend The Little Book of the Icelanders, both to fans of Sigmundsdóttir’s blog and those unfamiliar with her work. [Full review here.]

From Icelandic-Canadian paper Lögberg-Heimskringla:

There aren’t many books I’d recommend reading over morning coffee but The Little Book of the Iceanders is one of them. [...] I laughed at the essays in this book, not because I was laughing at Icelanders but because I recognize much of the behaviour in myself and members of my family. It felt good. It’s not just the sanest, most impressive characteristics that we pass on and share but also some of the zaniest. As I read this book, I frequently thought, yup, I’m definitely part Icelandic. [Full review here.]

Quentin Bates, author of Frozen Out:

I don’t know if my appreciative snorts of laughter distracted the conjuror or his sparse audience, but The Little Book of the Icelanders is a great read. There’s so much in there that’s absolutely spot on that I could recognise from my own experience, all succinctly put and with an unmistakable affection for Icelanders and their odd ways.  [Full review here.]

Sylvia Hikins, author of Journeys:

This is a book that made me laugh out loud but at the same time exposed human frailties that we all recognise and share. Buy it and enjoy it. Its sweet taste will stay just like your last Rollo!

The Icelandic multinational Marel purchased 75 copies for distribution among their staff, to facilitate inter-cultural understanding.

Readers’ responses on our Facebook page:

Great work. – Sue Rudge

Great reading. Waiting for part two. – Steve Guttormsson

Frábær bók! Already waiting for II. – Gunnar Davíðsson

Really enlightening to read about quirks and foibles, many of which I have been faced with in Iceland myself. A good and humorous book! – Joerg Wi

Now for the practicalities

First of all, you can download a free sample of the book by clicking here.

If you decide to purchase the book, simply click on one of the BUY NOW buttons. When you click BUY NOW, it will take you to a PayPal page, where you are invited to make your payment either via PayPal or by credit card. Those of you who purchased my previous eBook Living Inside the Meltdown will be familiar with this procedure.

When your payment has been processed, you are automatically redirected to a page where you will find a link to download the book. By clicking on the link, you will download the book to your hard drive in .epub format, which is the standard format for e-readers, except Kindle.

If you wish to read the book on your computer, I recommend a program such as Adobe Digital Editions, which is free and which gives much the same experience as reading on an eReader.

If you have anything other than a Kindle, you should be fine with the standard .epub file. All you need to do is send it to your device.

If you have a Kindle you will need to convert the .epub to .mobi format, which is what the Kindle reads. The good news is that this is very easy to do.

The best way is to use Calibre, which is a free program that allows you to keep all your digital books in one library. You can download Calibre here.

When you’ve opened Calibre, you need to add the file you’ve just downloaded to your Calibre library. You do that by choosing “Add books” and choosing The Little Book of the Icelanders from your hard drive. You’ll see that it appears in your list of books, like so:

Next you’ll want to select the tab that says “Convert books”, and choose “convert individually”. You then get another screen, like this:

You’ll see that, up in the left corner, the default “input format” is EPUB. That’s fine. In the top right-hand corner, however, you’ll also have EPUB as the default. You’ll need to change that to MOBI, as I’ve done in the screenshot above.

Then you just click OK and you’re done! After that, you can send the book to your Kindle.

Happy reading – and don’t forget that you can connect with us on our Facebook page, and on Twitter!

CLICK HERE TO BUY: