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Welcome to Reading Around the Globe, a series here on Reader Voracious Blog geared at fostering a culture of understanding in the bookish community about access to books in various countries around the world. Each post in the series highlights a full interview with one international reader. You can read more about this series here on the series master post.
An Interview with Julie
“We also have a concept called Bookbus where several libraries fill buses with books to drive out to the population.”
- What is your name? Julie
- Blog URL? Julie has a Booktube channel!
- Twitter handle? @StrixAlucoBooks
- Where do you live? One hour from Oslo, Norway
- Do you find that there is a culture of reading where you live? If not, tell us a bit how you came to be one! In Norway, most people can read, and when I went to primary school there was a great reading culture, which I still think it is. However, reading enthusiasm is something that many lose during secondary school / high school, probably because of lack of motivation and amount of school work. Reading enthusiasm does not change much after this. If you read more than 10 books during the year, you will soon be seen as a “reading horse” (as we say in Norway). It is very common to bring books on holiday, or generally read when you have vacation, but reading out of the most popular books, whether converted into movies, or receiving great media coverage, is not commonplace. The statistics for 2017 is that 88% read at least one book, while 38% read more than 10 books.
- What kinds of books do you enjoy reading? I like fantasy, and generally young adult books. I have dyslexia, so if books are too complicated or too light, then I quickly fall off. Books such as Wonder and Room I unfortunately fell out of since the writing style is from the perspective of children. I listen a lot to an English audiobook, but prefer physical books in Norwegian, often translated. My favorite books are Harry Potter and Name of the wind, but also like much contemporary young adult. Very often there are books that people are talking a lot about on BookTube.
- Have you always been a reader? Except in primary school, and a few books in childhood, I didn’t start reading properly until 2014. On the other hand, I have now read over 100 books over these four years so I have certainly been bitten by a bookworm. I am also very fond of collecting books, so it has come to the point that most of my family do not want to give me books any more. I only got two books for Christmas this year.
- Do you also read books published in your native language/published locally to you? If so, tell us a bit about what kinds of books are published in your country! Norway is very big on cricket books, but we have gained a growth in popular science in recent years. For example “The First Mystery” by Katharina Vestre or “The Wonder Down Under” by Nina Brochmann and Ellen Støkken DahlI mostly read translated literature, but I intend to read more books from Norwegian authors. We have very many good writers in Norway who also do very well internationally, so it’s a little shame not to talk about them online at the book communitys. 13 out of 60 books I’ve read this year were original Norwegian, but I’m still looking for a Norwegian author who understands the Young adult genre. Otherwise, I’m really looking forward to reading some books by Maja Lunde and Jo Nesbø next year.
- Are there libraries where you live? If so, what kinds of books can you find there? Are you able to get the books that you want? I haven’t actually visited my nearest libraries, but we have pretty good selection of libraries, with a wide selection of books. This will of course vary a bit, if it is in a big city or near college / university. We also have a concept called Bookbus where several libraries fill buses with books to drive out to the population.
- How prevalent are English published books where you live in bookstores? (For example, books printed by HarperCollins.) There are actually many books that are not translated because there are so many in Norway who read them in English. Most bookstores have English shelves and I found over 300 books printed by HarperCollins at the largest online store for books in Norway.
- Do you use NetGalley or Edelweiss to request electronic galleys for review? If so, what kind of success rate would you estimate for you personally? No, but maybe I should check it out.
- Do you experience hurdles or barriers to access for the kinds of books that you read? Please explain if so. If I really want to enjoy myself with a book, I like to have them in physical format, in Norwegian. Then it becomes a problem if books have not been translated because everyone else reads them in English. Other than this, it is usually easy to find books, and most new books also come on ebook.
- If you could make one change to the publishing landscape, what would you do? More translated literature and more respect for book covers. There are a lot of movie covers on popular books, and I have come across publishers who choose a nice cover of a book that is not the original and which does not fit the story. On the Norwegian book of “Winter” by Marissa Mayer, for example, you find a light skin Snow white, when characters Winter has dark skin.
- Help other international bloggers out… What resources do you use to obtain the books that you want to read? I use a lot of booktube, goodreads and the facebook group for PageHabitt.
- Do you have any other experiences as a reader around the world that you would like to share? I hope more people will try to read books by Norwegian authors, and generally try more international books. It is so much good all over the world that it is a shame to miss because one is locked into authors of a nation / language. Of course, this goes back to international readers who only read books by English writers.
Please note that all experiences reflected in the interviews are personal and are not meant to generalize what reading access is like in each country. If you are interested in participating please DM me on Twitter.
Read More Reading Around the Globe Interviews
Argentina
Consu @ papereyedgirl
Australia
Ellyn @ allonsythornraxxbooks
Greyson @ Use Your Words
Bangladesh
Maria @ mariahossainblog
Belgium
Inge @ Of Wonderland
Wesley @ Outsiders and Misfits
Canada
Catherine @ This One is for the Books (Toronto)
Kristina @ Books and Dachsunds (New-Brunswick)
Shania @ Book Princess Reviews (Quebec)
Chile
Maria @ bookish4life
Denmark
Catherine @ Bees and Books
Silje @ inkedbybooks
England
Clo @ Cuppa Clo
Olly @ Criminolly
France
Emma @ Mengueis De Livres
Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books
Germany
Silvia @ Silvia Reads Books
Hungary
Veronika @ Reading is Dreaming with Open Eyes
Indonesia
Carolina @ fictionologyst
Petrik @ Novel Notions
India
Himani @ Books&Sstuff
Nandini @ Unputdownable Books
Prags @ The Inked In Book Blog
Sumedha @ The Wordy Habitat
Suraj @ Books N Myself
Italy
Angela @ Books of a Shy Girl
Camilla @ Reader Attic
Kuwait
Devyn Jase @ devynjase.com
Mexico
Jossie @ thebookdragoncorner
Mozambique
A Restless Traveler
The Netherlands
Annemieke @ A Dance With Books
Esther @ Bite into Books
Luci @ Lunar Luci Books
Marco @ Barely a Blogger
Michelle @ Michelle Likes Things
Nigeria
Chinelo @ Booked_Unicorn
Norway
Julie @ StrixAlucoBooks
Palestine
Hamad @ thebookprescription
Pakistan
Nargis @ Literary Nerd’s Musings
Philippines
Aimee @ Aimee Always
Alexia @ Bookworm Daydreamer
Gel @ Whimsy Wanders
Justine @ bookishwisps
Kate @ Your Tita Kate
Rain @ Bookdragoninsm
Shealea @ Shut Up, Shealea
Portugal
Marta @ The Book Mermaid
Rita @ Bookish Rita
Romania
Dianthaa @ Dianthaa Dabbles
Puerto Rico
Yani @ Read & Create
Rwanda
Annie @ Sunflower Bookshelf
Singapore
Taasia @ libraepaintspages
Slovenia
Para @ Other Worlds Reviews
South Africa
DB @ DB’s Guide to the Galaxy
Switzerland
Elisa @ bookishexpat
United Arab Emirates
Nicka @ Wander with Nicka
Zimbabwe
Sakhile @ Sakhile Whispers
Please note that all experiences reflected in the interviews are personal and are not meant to generalize what reading access is like in each country. If you are interested in participating please DM me on Twitter or send me a message on Discord.
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Hi, fellow norwegian! I recently realized how little norwegian authors I was reading because I’d read mainly english books since I was a teenager, and hopefully will try to read more norwegian books in the future. I’m also moving to a bigger city with a library next year, that’s something I strangely really miss since moving to a small place
Hi Eline, thank you for stopping by and I hope that the library where you move to is a good one!
Book horse! Lol, what an amusing term. I wonder how it came about? In China people who love books are called ‘Shu Chong(literally means book worm)’, ‘Shu Mi(Book fan)’, ‘Shu Chi(literally meaning someone who’s crazy about books, more commonly known to mean bibliophile or bookworm)’ or ‘Shu Dai Zi(Book nerd)’.
So, you can see why I’m curious about the logic behind/origins of the term ‘book horse’ 😁
Book horse cracks me up too, haha! I like the various terms that you have in China for book lovers, that is so cool! Which one do you consider yourself?
Loll, I’m glad you enjoyed it 😁 Good question, I prefer ‘Shu Mi(book fan)’ as I don’t particularly like the term ‘bookworm’ in any language 😜
In Norway we also have a term called workhorse, which means that you are hard working and diligent. Reading horse, which can go both for students and reading enthusiasts, is then a variant of work horse. Some Norwegian publishers have also used this for their children’s books, both reading horse and reading lion that I know of.
I love this so much, thanks for the lesson! That is so cool!
An interesting interview. I’ve read a fair few crime novels by Norwegian authors eg Jo Nesbø and Karin Fossum but that’s about all. When I was a child in Australia we had a book bus (mobile library) that visited our suburb every fortnight, I was always first in line!
I’ve heard that Norwegian crime novels are really enjoyable, I may have to give one a try. And I am so jealous of a book bus; the closest I had in the US growing up was the Scholastic Book Fair that came to school once a year.
This was a very interesting interview! I completely relate with the issue of cover changes when books get translated. I know that this typically happens because a cover that is appealing to the American audience may not be as appealing to my country’s audience, but I still have to find a Brazilian cover that looks better than the original one. I also feel like the designers barely know what the book is about and end up throwing elements into the cover that don’t make a whole lot of sense – plus some very weird color combinations.
I haven’t heard of many Norwegian authors before, except for Karl Ove Knausgård. His series “My Struggle” has been translated to Portuguese and I have heard a lot of praise for it. It’s quite of a long adult non-fiction series, so it doesn’t really tick any boxes for me, but I think it’s nice that his work got translated here too.
Thanks for sharing, Julie!
I never really thought about the cover changes in translation, just one of the privileges I never even realized that I had. Here I am just complaining about cover changes mid-series or the dreaded movie tie-in cover, whereas when/if a book is translated the cover can completely change and not reflect the book. Thanks for reading and your comment!
I honestly never really thought about cover changes when a book is translated before this interview, but I guess it makes sense that different visuals are appealing around the world. It’s unfortunate that sometimes the designers don’t capture the spirit of the book, though! Thanks for reading!
i kinda know about some book cover changes in translation, mostly my fave authors tho who’s books id actualyl love in different langauges…
this was a great post to read!! 🙂 cant wait to see future ones too
I really want to read more books in Spanish to keep up on the language, I read Chamber of Secrets in Spanish while I was in Ecuador and that was wild. Thanks for reading, Lauren!
Aaaand another great post from my favorite series! I really wish we could focus on international authors, it just seems unfair that they get a bit put aside and not just in the US but in their own countries too, but at the same time, I think maybe the US has the largest variety for YA? I’m not sure..I’d like to look into that more! But!!! Yay! I have a new booktuber to follow! I’m off to go look at the videos now!
I am really interested in looking at the business of publishing; from my impression on Twitter following international authors it definitely seems that US based authors get the most push. But that may be because that’s where most of the publishing houses are.
True, I want to know more though it seems such a weird thing to have centralized in US, I mean I get it, just feels like we should be past that point
Wonderful!! Another great post in a series I always look forward to. I am so glad you do these. I didn’t know booktuber was a thing (don’t laugh) but I am going to check hers out right now!
I am really glad you enjoy the series so much, Jennifer!!! Not laughing, I didn’t really know the term booktuber until I branched out a lot on Twitter. I don’t personally follow a lot of booktube channels because it takes me longer to watch a video than to read a post, but there are a couple I really enjoy!
You had me at book bus! I just love that idea.
Ok, I just went back to the master post to check out your covered countries. You have to do Iceland!! Did you hear about their Book Flood tradition? They have a black Friday for books! Plus, one in every 10 Icelander is said to publish a book in their lifetime. Their reading culture seems huge and their libraries are well used. They even had a tv series just for books. I hope you find someone!
Isn’t the book bus such a cool thing?! I WANT ONE! The best I got was the annual Scholastic Book Fair. Which is awesome, but not a bus.
Oooh that sounds so cool! I would love to do Iceland, so hopefully someone will volunteer for the interview that lives there. Thanks for the recommendation!!!