50: The Book of Lagom by Göran Everdahl.
I read the English edition…but that doesn’t show up with this pretty cover.
This book was a treasure of a birthday gift from my Swedish cousins four years ago, when we celebrated my birthday IN Stockholm, Sweden…such a splendid soirée.
I’ve been saving it for just the right time. And this was just the right time!
“Lagom” is the Swedish way for living “just right”: not too, too excessive much…not stingy scant…but just right.
Being pleased but not overly proud or bragging…about one’s children, accomplishments, etc.
Developing the term “Mellanmjölk” for the 1.5% fat milk that is not the fat “whole” milk nor the watery .5% skimmed…because “1% milk” didn’t sound as good.
Loving fika…but not having to truly present seven different pastries, as called for by the tradition, but enjoying a afternoon coffee, cardamom bun, and cheese.
Living simply environmentally…making choices like carpooling, walking when one can, etc.
Basically finding the happiest “medium” in all things.
I so enjoyed revisiting things I’d learned by experience or teaching while there for three weeks with fantastic family, compassionate and generous cousins…and reminiscing as well as feeling smart for knowing, already, some of what the book shares.
And there are recipes!!
There’s a teeny typo near the end of my edition, where an “och” has been left…instead of being translated to “and,” which I know thanks to my 11-day DuoLingo streak.
And there are some places where incomplete sentences occur…which is also easy to understand for its being a translated work. So even that I find interesting…not upsetting.
I learned a lot of Swedish history and not “painfully” at all…but rather relevantly to my life and existence and leave the book thinking: “maybe when I REALLY retire…we move “home” to Sweden. The world is smaller now…and I think my heart, in part, lives there.
So it’s Everdahl’s style and organization of this book that is compelling to me in its accessibility and easy “digestion” of content that is to me completely compelling. It made for a delight-filled read. And I might need to go find a cardamom bun to celebrate!