Tuesday, November 25, 2008

A book that made me laugh

The Husband got a package in the mail yesterday - his "nameday" is coming up. He had totally forgot about the nameday and opened the package - way ahead. Anyway - his parents had sent him a book as a gift and I brought the book up with me to read before going to bed, way too late after a long night working - and I laughed so much that I got the hickups. Maybe I was just tired of this book is hilarious!

The book, "Den som spikar på Julafton har allvarliga problem*" is an odysse over notices (what is the translation for "snusförnuftig"??) that Swedes put up in the laundry room, the elevators and elsewhere, telling other people what not to do (or to do). The author, the Swedish comedian David Batra, has lived abroad and can have this very funny "alien perspective" on Swedes and their habits. He writes about Swedish behaviour on the street, when "interacting" with neighbors, in the laundry room and in the bathroom - and their communicating to each other with notes.

Too bad it's only in Swedish - or maybe it's good... maybe you really need to have lived in Sweden and read Swedish to see the hilarious (and sad...) part of all these notes - maybe it just wouldn't make sense otherwise. For a Swedish alien it's a must!

*Freely (and badly) translated "Those who hammer on Christmas Eve have serious problems" and it was previously published as "Den som inte tar bort luddet ska dö".

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jag lånar den gärna när ni är färdiga, om jag får. Annars låter det som en bok jag gärna skulle köpa.....

Anonymous said...

Annars finns det ju också argalappen.se :)

Cissi said...

det lät ju kul! måste inhandlas!

Anonymous said...

i saw manyyyy notes in the walls and even in the parking lot...why the local people don´t say the things face to face????...
it´s a swedish way to face the situations?...OMG!!!!!
by the way i live in jönköping...very special place to live...

Annika said...

Jag vill ha den boken. Den ska jag önska mig i julklapp!! Låter så kul!!
Och säkert otroligt träffande!

Saltistjejen said...

Haha! Den boken låter jättekul! Måste kolla upp den!
Kram!

Anna, Fair and True said...

Såg den på Designtorget idag! Fast där säljs den fortfarande under "luddet"-titeln.

Isle Dance said...

I thought notes were mandatory in life. This is the first time I'm realizing they're not??

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JaCal said...

Peter J - attans - hade ju tänkt visa den när ni var här. Du får gärna låna.

Cissi - japp - kul ufo-läsning. ;-)

Carlos - haha - yes, must be a very interesting phenomena coming from out of Sweden. ;-)

Annika - ja, jag läset den precis vid rätt tillfälle - helkul!

Saltistjejen - den är väldigt träffande - och samtidigt nästan lite tragisk... ;-)

Anna - ja, jag har sett den tidigare - men inte kommit mig för. Nu kom den ju som paket till maken - perfekt!

Isle Dance - well... it depends... if you lived in a apartment with shared laundry room in Sweden... these notes can be pretty special. ;-)

Mattias - ja... jag hoppas nu bara inte folk köper och inte tycker den var lika kul som jag - humor kan ju vara rätt olika. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Hi! Do you know where I can get this book?