Jolabokaflod begins!
This time of year at our house we begin gathering books for the holiday book flood!!
It's December so that means books!!! At our house, even though we live in the Pacific Northwest, my wife
and I follow the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflod aka the holiday book flood!!Here's how we do it: starting early December we visit independent bookstores and buy books and chocolates. We try (oh, it's so hard) to refrain from reading these books or eating the chocolates until December 24. On that evening- after an early dinner - we put on our pajamas and sit in the living room reading all evening while drinking hot chocolate and eating chocolate candies!
To explain, in a delightful voice, this very elaborate, oh so complicated 😉 holiday tradition is the owner of the bookstore Sherlock and Pages… https://youtube.com/shorts/v23G9k2Hod8?si=ICEfC76r8e98DfT_
So to begin the Jolabokaflod celebration early here are some books by friends of mine here on Substack! Yes, this is a shameless promotion of my friends’ books - please have your wallet ready…
The Ballad Of Stinky Pete by
Walking the Cat by
The Artist's Mind by
Daily Rituals by
The Art Of Noticing by
- book link at the bottom of this link
Simple Pleasures by
Wild Divinity by
And of course there's the newly published sketchbook by me - as mentioned in my last newsletter.
Recently my wife and I went with our Fairy Goddaughter to Vintage Books and then to a local winery where we valiantly admired the covers of our books and talked while *not reading a damn thing* - so noble of us to observe tradition so well! 🤣 We did pledge to fill our winery punch card with bookstore visits and then redeem the filled cards at the winery!!
Yes, there's a reason this design below is a common sight around our town with 8 independent bookstores in it!
Since beverages like coffee, tea, and hot chocolate pair so well with the act of reading books here are two mugs I made on the topic of books.
Bookstore cat mug (link here)
Hare's To Hot Beverages and comforts and books! (Link here)
I hope your weekend is cozy and comfortable!
In this holiday season, I’m especially thankful to all the readers who have generously taken out subscriptions to support my work. Your encouragement and support of me is both humbling and motivating. Thank you for your patronage - it is such a gift! As a patron please feel free to access and download any or all of the ebooks I've written and illustrated from this 23 book index page here. Happy Jolabokaflod in advance!!
What a great tradition! Honored to be included — thank you 😊 🙏
Oh Sue! You are such a dear to share all of these books!!! I am going to have to resort to drawing titles out of a hat to make some selections!!! But that will be fun, too! A very happy Jolabokaflod to you and J. L., too!