#theyearoflivingdanishly

[matildasbooks]

hibernation months

Lockdown #3 feels interminable. Today, I explained to my mother the meaning of ‘pathetic fallacy’ as the rain drummed around us. Storm Christoph is on its way and the river is fit to burst its banks again, the waters so ice-cold the dogs won’t swim. In the bluebell woods which are only russet and bronze right now, no hint of cobalt yet, I slid like a silverfish over the water-logged ground, blinked fat raindrops from my eyes. The dog’s red coat frosted with rain freckles. I’ve read a lot as always, but have enjoyed it less than usual. I put novels down for a few days and forget where the story’s going. Non-fiction is gentler; I can read a chapter as a snapshot stand-alone essay. 

A friend recommended ‘The Year of Living Danishly’ by Helen Russell to me years ago when I was in Edinburgh for the book festival and it’s only now I’ve got around to it. Reading a travel memoir might sound an odd choice when it’s unlikely anyone will be travelling for a while yet, but moving to a new place, as Russell does, can be extremely isolating. She and her partner, who works for Lego and is therefore referred to in the book as ‘Lego Man’, move to Denmark during the winter months. Spring, they are told, officially starts in March, but doesn’t normally appear before May. The streets are so deserted Russell proleptically wonders if there’s been some kind of viral outbreak (the book was written long before the word ‘corona’ - sadly not the beer - became a part of our daily lexicon). Denmark was meant to be an escape for Russell from the rat race back home and the constant questioning from strangers as to when she’d be having a baby; their arrival in the midst of winter appears, at first, to ensure the opposite. Russell feels trapped in a new town that greets her like an ice box. Through windows, she sees little movement, only glittering candlelight. A neighbour explains that the Danes “hibernate” over winter, staving off the darkling hours with glimmers of flame and hygge (Danes burn more candles per head than any other country in the world (Russell 2015, p. 10)). Although in the UK, hygge is a word most people will recognise, sold as a concept in self-care magazines and scrawled across the “perfect-Christmas-gift”-books such as ‘The Little Book of Hygge’, when I asked my French university students what it might mean, they had no idea. Apparently in the UK it’s a more attractive and marketable idea than in France, at least for now. In Russell’s book, however, it’s clear that hygge is not just a lifestyle one strives towards to achieve a better version of themselves or a fleeting fashion, its a means of survival. The Danes fight Seasonal Affective Disorder by, as one local puts it, ‘holing up for winter’ (p. 12). 

Despite my reluctance to buy into (quite literally) the hype around hygge, reading Helen Russell’s witty account of a year in the “happiest nation in the world” has been comforting in these dark and dreary months. The only candlelight in my room is the blue glow of my computer screen as it whirrs like a plane taking off to keep up with the amount of work I’m using it for - it was on its last legs before lockdown #1. I haven’t changed much about my routine - I’m still halfway through the book - but perhaps there’s something to be said for some elements of hygge in this Covid world. I’ve rediscovered a childish joy in stickers (literary ones, of course) which I’m affixing to every notebook I own and I’m trying to journal - there’s a good video by @TheOxfordPsych on how to use journalling as a tool to improve your mental health, rather than just a performative exercise, which I found useful. I’m beating myself up less about getting through my growing pile of books and reading slowly, as if I’m a university student again, annotating my books with a pink pen. 

My favourite read so far this month has to be ‘Field Notes’ by Anna Selby, published by Hazel Press and sold by The London Review of Books Bookshop. Written under water on transparent notebooks, her poems are electric. With an epigraph from Joan Didion - ‘what it is like to be a woman, the irreconcilable difference of it, the sense of living one’s deepest life underwater, that dark involvement with blood and birth and death’ - Selby dives deep into waters where she can become a creature apart from the murky subterranean existence of a woman, catcalled and pregnant and un-pregnant, something more like a fish that’s soldered its wounds with kintsugi, with the golden threads of a lit wick. Her blog (on her website http://annamariaselby.co.uk/) also serves as a wonderful introduction to her work as a poet, PhD student and naturalist, with descriptions of night gardens crowded with Japanese wisteria and moonflower vines. 

For now, the hibernation months continue. I wonder how we’ll look back at these years, as we begin to reckon with the effects it has wrought on countries and individuals, but I may as well in the meantime take Selby’s advice, via Thomas Merton, to listen to the rain: ‘nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants this rain. As long as it talks, I am going to listen’. 

More non-fiction perfect for lockdown in the vein of Russell’s The Year of Living Danishly;

Bleaker House by Nell Stevens 

Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss

Fiction books I might read next:

A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Childhood by Tove Ditlevsen

[stockschatz]

Ollie is doing some summer reading. #aussiesofinstagram #summerreading #theyearoflivingdanishly https://www.instagram.com/p/CD6NJ8bBbXs/?igshid=1hvz73c258o3s

[bibliobethblog]

Hi everyone, we’ve almost made it halfway through the week! Today I’m sharing the final half shelf of nonfiction books I have at home. Most of these books are (surprise surprise) unread but I have read, thoroughly enjoyed and decided to keep a couple of them, notably Me - Elton John and Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt.⁣ ⁣ Books I’m excited to read from this shelf? It would have to be The Five by Hallie Rubenhold which I’ve heard so many great things about. I’m also intrigued by One of Us by Asne Seierstad which is the story of the horrendous Norway massacre. Finally, The Year Of Living Danishly by Helen Russell is my current nonfiction read. ⁣ ⁣ Can you see anything you’ve read on this shelf? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!⁣ ⁣ #bookstagram #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookshelfie #nonfiction #me #eltonjohn #cannibalismaperfectlynaturalhistory #billschutt #theyearoflivingdanishly #helenrussell #thefive #hallierubenhold #oneofus #åsneseierstad #tbrpile https://www.instagram.com/p/CByShgtABKk/?igshid=1n44q7iqh5nx6

[adayinbookland]

Happy Monday! 🌸🌿 although a month late, I finally uploaded a post about my thoughts for The Year of Living Danishly & I also shared some pictures from my trip to Copenhagen 💞 #theyearoflivingdanishly #nonfiction #denmark

[lisamoralesphoto]

#copenhagen 2015 was a forced layover, I'm really looking forward to a real explore this summer. Reading #theyearoflivingdanishly for inspiration. #denmark #streetscape #travel #latergram #balticsea #nordic #igersdenmark #danmark (at Copenhagen, Denmark)

[peapodparry]

54 pages in and I WANT TO MOVE TO DENMARK #theyearoflivingdanishly #helenrussell #hygge #thegoodlife #slowliving #legoandpastries #goodreads

[lukaluluka]

A simpática capa do livro "O Segredo da Dinamarca" 🇩🇰 📚 da @editoraleya #felicidade #hygge #leya #livro #book #osegredodadinamarca #theyearoflivingdanishly #danish #helenrussell #voumeemboraprapasargada

[lukaluluka]

#felicidade #hygge #leya #livro #book Do livro "O Segredo da Dinamarca" 🇩🇰 📚 da @editoraleya #osegredodadinamarca #theyearoflivingdanishly #danish #helenrussell

[bibliobethblog]

London Bookshop Crawl #5 - lovely surprise at @blackwellshighholborn which seemed to have everything I wanted! I've been meaning to read The Year Of Living Danishly for a while now and I had to pick up a signed copy of one of my all time favourites, Claire Fuller's debut after only having it on kindle previously. 😁 #bookworm #bookstagram #bookblogger #londonbookshopcrawl #blackwellsholborn #ourendlessnumbereddays #clairefuller #theyearoflivingdanishly #helenrussell