I went to bed at 9 PM on new year’s eve—the usual time. Before that, I was reading HOW TO BEGIN by Michael Bungay Stanier (he goes by the moniker MBS). Beginning at 7 PM, I started reading where I left off the day before, and finished Chapter 2 (which felt more like a “Part” 2) of the book. There are, in total, 3 chapters (or parts).

Mister Pops and I were sleeping soundly when the fireworks started going off. […]

Yesterday Amazon.se delivered my fresh batch of books. Perfect timing. Today I launched right in, and started with HOW TO BEGIN by MBS—nej, it’s not Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, but Michael Bungay Stanier. With an Eriksberg in hand to begin ‘the ritual’ I began reading.

It’s a very good book to end the current year and usher in the new. Peter Jöback’s Stockholm i natt is playing in the background. I took a sip of my Eriksberg. […]

For today’s reading, I have chosen a children’s book that I spoke about last Sunday: VEM SER DIM? by Maria Nilsson Thore. Dim is a tiny little bug that lives in the forest. He is so tiny that no one sees him. And this is his tiny little story.

For this read-aloud I have done something different. I used a Warcraft special effect (can you guess which one?). Happy listening!

…(illustrated by the author) is a great book. This 288-page gem is filled with beautiful, fun, and whimsical illustrations; utterly enjoyable! I loved it. It’s so good.

I was browsing at Akademibokhandeln (Akademi for short) sometime late last year and almost bought it. It has been on my wishlist ever since. I finally borrowed it from the local library (about a month ago) and finished reading it in one sitting today.

Flashback: At Akademi, I had read one of the stories—En egen flock—and […]

The above quote is an excerpt from Seth Godin’s blog post […]

More than two weeks ago, I presented Tove Jansson to my classmates and teacher. This was one of the assignments one must complete in the Swedish komvux: a 10-minute presentation about a Swedish author. While this is usually the last assignment one attempts in class, I decided to plunge right into the deep end because no. 1) I love reading, and no. 2) I love playing with PowerPoint. […]

Thank you, James Clear, for the inspiration and wise words today.

For today’s reading, I have chosen a very well-loved story about a super strong girl called Pippi Långstrump (English: Pippi Longstocking). The red-haired, freckled girl is a special character created by Astrid Lingren and named by Lingren’s daughter, Karin. Pippi is playful, unpredictable, and unconventional.

I bought the book in Stockholm during a business trip in Sweden in 2015. Happy listening!

TAIPEI, TAIWAN (2019)

For today’s reading, I have chosen a barnbok (children’s book) from McDonald’s Happy Meal Readers (HMR). I only have this one for the Swedish market but I understand that the McDonalds Tiny Detectives HMR (total: 12 books) were also available at McDonalds Singapore and Malaysia. I don’t know what possessed me to order a Happy Meal but I suspect the word “book” has something to do with it—that’s how I ended up with this little gem.

This book is the Swedish edition of Cressida Cowell’s De små detektiverna: Finns det liv på havets djupaste botten? (In English: The Tiny Detectives: Is there Life at the Bottom of the Deepest Ocean?) Happy listening!

HUSKVARNA, SWEDEN (2019)

When I started this paint-by-numbers project more than four weeks ago—painting only on weekends—I hadn’t expected it to be such a time-consuming, back-breaking exercise. But THE KISS is worth it.

Will I do this again? Most likely […]

For today’s reading, I have chosen the instruction pages from my bumper Sudoku book, 1001 Sudoku. It’s a brick of a book at over 600 pages thick, but not to worry, the reading is only from pages 4 and 5. Happy listening!

Sambal my red typewriter has been acting wonky ever since the move to Sweden. It’s jumping one keystroke every four characters. This is why you’re seeing “START WEIGHT” spelled strangely above. At first I was quite annoyed and saddened by it, but after a while I decided to just embrace its wonkiness.

This is also the period of the 2022 Parliamentary election in Sweden. […]