Jolabokaflod

Christmas Book Flood • Reading for Pleasure


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Last few hours of free…

bokati%e2%88%82indi-2-openThe end of free…

The Futurebook Conference organised by The Bookseller magazine marks the close of the free phase for book recommendations for the Book Bulletin catalogue. Entries for the books you love or wish to promote are free until midnight on 2 December 2016.

Thank you to everyone who has taken part so far. You have helped to get the catalogue off to a rapid start out of the blocks.

bokati%e2%88%82indi-1-cover… and the start of the crowdfunding campaign

From just after the stroke of midnight, the Book Bulletin project becomes a rewards-based crowdfunding campaign at CrowdPatch, to help fund events and promotion for Jolabokaflod UK in 2017. The 2016 campaign has been fully funded as an act of philanthropy by Christopher Norris, Founder and Curator of the Jolabokaflod Book Campaign.

Please contribute as generously as you can to promote books and your own personal and professional interests.

 


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If you love Jolabokaflod, please like us at Facebook

readers-12-sunAs Jolabokaflod hits its stride this Christmas in Iceland, the UK and beyond, please “Like” its Community page at Facebook to boost the profile of our campaign to encourage people to buy books as gifts for loved one to read this Christmas.


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What Jólabókaflóð means to me: Gerður Kristný

gerdur-kristny-1Here is the first article in our Icelandic Perspectives series of reflections by famous writers and prominent public figures on their memories, thoughts, opinions  and anecdotes about the long-standing national tradition of Jólabókaflóð.

The first writer to feature in the series is award-winning poet, playwright, biographer and novelist, Gerður Kristný.

Read Gerður’s personal take on the Christmas Book Flood – ‘Deck the Halls with Books‘ – and compare her thoughts with her compatriots’ reflections as they are published in the Icelandic Perspectives section of this website.


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When Jo met Beatrix

Waterstoneswaterstones-logo have announced their shortlist for Book of the Year 2016, an eclectic mix of styles, genres and voices. Here are the six books they have chosen:

  • Christopher De Hamel, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts
  • Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air
  • Emma-Jane Kirby, The Optician of Lampedusa
  • Sarah Perry, The Essex Serpent
  • Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Kitty in Boots
  • J K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Parts I & II

Have you read these books? Do you love them enough to recommend them to other people?

If so, check out our Book Bulletin crowdfunding campaign and get your name into the Christmas catalogue on this website, to promote you, your organisation and/or your projects.


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Hygge and Jolabokaflod

story-tellingAt this time of doom, gloom and austerity, we are all in need of learning about what makes us happy. With nifty commercial nous, publishers have spotted an opportunity to haul us out of our malaise and depression: the Danish concept of hygge.

What is hygge?

The reason books have been written on the subject is because hygge does not have a direct translation equivalent in English. As Winnie-th-Pooh tells Piglet. ‘You don’t spell it [love], you feel it’. Here are some approximations, suggested by Meik Wiking in his recent book, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well:

  • red-bk-mid-left‘the art of creating intimacy’
  • ‘cosiness of the soul’
  • ‘the absence of annoyance’
  • ‘taking pleasure from the presence of soothing things’
  • ‘cocoa by candlelight’

He gives by example an idyllic scene, to describe the experience. Imagine a group of friends, retired to the lounge of a ski chalet after an excellent meal, sipping hot, percolated coffee and liqueurs in comfy armchairs next to a roaring log fire – oblivious to the snow blizzard doing its worst outside. Hygge suggests a sense of warmth and comfort in the throes of the worst the world can throw at us.

Iceland int; woman readingIs Jolabokaflod hygge?

In the Utopic scene above, imagine that the friends are on holiday in Iceland and it is Christmas Eve. The friends have just eaten an amazing Christmas meal to mark the festive season and are settling into their armchairs to open their presents, some of which are books. The friends spend the rest of the evening – Christmas Eve – exchanging intelligent conversation, drinking mulled wine and reading.

This is Jokabokaflod in action: a prime example of a hygge tradition.


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Timely success for The Icelanders Cometh

sunlightMoney raised

The finally tally of contributions for The Icelanders Cometh was £2365.00, 103% of the target set of £2304.16, raised by the final end date, 25 October 2016. This means that all the money raised – all £2365.00 – will be given to libraries in the UK who sign up to receive the free books on offer. Details of the participating libraries will be published as soon as they are confirmed.

Everyone who made a contribution will be contacted in the next few days regarding the claiming of the rewards they purchased to help fund the crowdfunding campaign.

Public concern for libraries

The Icelanders Cometh project ran in the context of widening concern about the state of the library sector. A major debate on the issue in the House of Lords on 7 October 2016 was notable for a powerful speech by Big Issue founder, Lord Bird, who spoke with passion and apprehension about the effects of making cuts to the public library service.

Further publicity will be garnered by a march – the National Libraries Demonstration – which is scheduled for 5 November 2016: starting at the British Library, pit-stopping at the British Museum, and finishing at the National Gallery. The Demonstration aims to ‘kick start the debate about the value of public libraries and alert the public to the ever worsening situation’, according to its organisers.

The future

The Jolabokaflod Book Campaign will continue to use crowdfunding to help libraries, by running projects in-house and by encouraging people with passion to use the patch at CrowdPatch to organise their own campaigns. The Icelanders Cometh is only the start: they – and we – are here is stay.


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Library logistics: The Icelanders Cometh on 23 October 2016

160524 Books 2Library lament

At a time when libraries in the UK are coming under increasing threat, highlighted once more in The Bookseller (7 July 2016), The Icelanders Cometh campaign is generating good news for a beleaguered sector.

The recent Brexit vote for the UK to leave the European Union will have far-reaching consequences across the economy, filtering down to local government budgets and funding available for public libraries in communities.

A light in the dark

The crowdfunding heart of the Jolabokaflod Book Campaign provides one channel of hope that the future of libraries need not be one of managed decline: the first project, The Icelanders Cometh, shows how funds can be raised for libraries to spend on books (in this case, four award-winning authors and a treasure trove of medieval sagas and eddas).

160524 Books 1The Jolabokaflod Book Campaign is working in conjunction with the London MEP, Syed Kamall, to spread the good news of microfunding and crowdfunding to every Council in the country and – by extension – every public library.

New deadline: let’s do this!

To mark the end of the Frankfurt Book Fair, everyone now has until 23 October 2016 to get involved with The Icelanders Cometh. You can contribute money for rewards; volunteer your help, talents and contacts; and share news about the project to everyone you know, in conversations both online and in the real world.

Let’s make this a season to remember for UK libraries; let’s do this!

 


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New end date as Melvyn Bragg endorses The Icelanders Cometh

Feel the buzz

After a successful London Book Fair that captured the imaginations of publishers and journalists alike, it became clear that time was needed for The Icelanders Cometh buzz to build and go viral, to optimise the money to be raised via crowdfunding (way beyond the World Book Night figure of £2304.16) for UK libraries to spend on books by Icelandic authors translated into English.

News update

Now endorsed by broadcaster, novelist and Parliamentarian, Melvyn Bragg, the new end date for The Icelanders Cometh is 17 June 2016, Icelandic National Day, to mark the anniversary of Iceland’s formal independence from Denmark in 1944.

Celebration videos

These two pieces of news were first mentioned in two video messages recorded at the Café Royal by Christopher Norris, Founder and Curator of the Jolabokaflod Book Campaign, to mark three auspicious occasions: World Book Night, World Book and Copyright Day, and the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespare.

Watch them here:

Summary for social media (02:21)
Extended version (04:35)

Get involved: let’s do this!

We have until 17 June 2016 to make the campaign happen. Here is what you can do to take part by visiting The Icelanders Cometh in the Jolabokaflod Book Campaign patch at CrowdPatch:

  • Contribute Spend money on a reward and reap the benefit of a range of digital media packages
  • Volunteer Tell us what you would like to do to help us raise as much money as we can
  • Share Spread the news about the campaign to friends, family and the wider world via social media

You can reach Christopher Norris either via The Icelanders Cometh profile at CrowdPatch or via email or phone: contact details here.


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Let’s get the Icelanders to come for World Book Night

Map; IslandiaLet’s do this!

You have until World Book Night to get stuck into The Icelanders Cometh and help to make it happen.

We need to raise at least £2304.16 by 23 April 2016 as a gift to UK libraries to spend on books by Icelandic authors published in English.

Here’s how you can get involved …

Contribute

Give us your money in exchange for a range of rewards, that range from virtual hugs to advertising opportunities.

If you have a project or company to publicise, or you would simply like to get your name out there (e.g. to a future employer), there are plenty of digital marketing perks as reward for your financial contribution.

Donating to The Icelanders Cometh could be your breakthrough, a change to get yourself or your project to the next level.

Simply click on the ‘Contribute’ button at The Icelanders Cometh page at CrowdPatch, choose a reward and send your money via PayPal.

All the money you contribute – 100 per cent – will be spent on books for libraries. Neither Jolabokaflod nor CrowdPatch receives any fees for running the crowdfunding campaign

Thank you in advance for your contribution!

Volunteer

We’d love you you to help in practical ways to enthuse people about being a part of making The Icelanders Cometh happen.

We’d be delighted for you to do any of the following – and anything else that comes to mind – to help us to raise as much money as we can and to get the buzz going:

  • write a few emails
  • make some suggestions
  • use your skills and talents
  • develop your experience

We’d love to hear from you. Simply click on the ‘Volunteer’ button at The Icelanders Cometh page at CrowdPatch and tell us what you would like to do.

Get stuck in!

Share

We hope you love The Icelanders Cometh enough to spread the news about the project via social media.

Simply click on the ‘Share’ button at The Icelanders Cometh page at CrowdPatch and then tell your world.

Like to learn more?

Read full details about The Icelanders Cometh in this press release written for the London Book Fair 2016.

If you’re a journalist, blogger, teacher or researcher, please check out the Press area to find what you need.

If you have any questions, please get in touch:

 


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New ‘Authors’ menu tab supports The Icelanders Cometh

A writer for every taste

Whether you’re into reading crime fiction, award-winning literary fiction or medieval myths and histories, Jolabokaflod.org will tickle your tastebuds.

Experience the best that Nordic noir can offer by reading novels by Arnaldur Indriðason, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Ragnar Jónasson. Enter the worlds created by comic genius Halldór Laxness, the 1955 Nobel Laureate. Or, immerse yourself in heroic tales of life in Iceland from 1000 years ago, featuring Gods, monsters, heroes and villains.

Better still, make sure you help all readers in the UK enjoy these authors’ work by contributing money to The Icelanders Cometh crowdfunding campaign for libraries, as well as volunteering your help and sharing the project by word-of-mouth and digital media.

Let’s raise £2304.16 by World Book Night (23 April 2016), to introduce these great writers to readers new to their work for their delight and appreciation.

Featured authors

Map; Islandia