Just read a beautiful story called Egil's saga. This is Christine Fells's translation from 1974 (I think there's a more popular, more recent translation published by Penguin that I will try). It took me a couple of weeks to read it, and it's short. Reason being it's hard to keep up with all the Thorolfs and Thorgerds and Thordises). Of course, this ( Read more... )

'This scores me points. In Iceland, being a writer is pretty much the best thing you can be. Successful, struggling, published in books or only in your mind, it matters not. Icelanders adore their writers. Partly, this represents a kind of narcissism, since just about everyone in Iceland is a writer or poet. Taxi drivers, college professors, hotel ( Read more... )