I saw this quiz on a good friend’s journal and just had to post the result, because it matches me to a “t”. Isn’t that a funny saying? I must look it up and see where it came from. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I’m a word freak!


Some may call you bookish, and mean it in a bad
way.....but we know better! Delighting in
books, and very likely with more tomes than
clothes, you amaze others with your knowledge
of the obscure and the common.

Books alone cannot a life make, but you know this
as well....you love having chats with others
who love words and ideas as much as yourself!

Can I play in your library? Please??

You are The Favourite Poet by Alma~Tadema.


Which Pre~Raphaelite Painting Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I’ve always loved books, from a very early age. My mother despaired of me, as I read everything and anything I could lay my hands on. This often meant I had my nose stuck in a book while the cake that I was meant to be watching burned in the oven, or the washing got soaked by rain while I was away in fantasy land, or my younger siblings happily painted the kitchen with Vegemite while I was supposed to be babysitting. And I was one of those kids that read under the blankets by torchlight.

At university, I was in heaven! I was encouraged to read as much as I could while I completed my arts degree, a graduate diploma in library studies and then moved on to a law degree. I just couldn’t get enough to read and my research skills were unsurpassed, even turning up obscure cases that my torts tutors hadn’t found.

This continued into my working life and leisure time – it is my main form of recreation and when I lived in Australia, I spent an obscene amount on books. It was my biggest vice. This love for reading has also rubbed off onto my children, who are both avid readers. I read to them all of the time and they had an enviable range of books, plus regular library trips to keep them happy.

In Sweden, without the luxury of a large income, I haunt the second hand book shops for bargains, I hang out for the annual book sale and most of all, I am the library’s best customer. I’ve started to read some Swedish books and have pretty much read everything they have in English. I borrow on average about 15 or so books a month. Some months I borrow even more than that. I’m also lucky that Lars-Göran is a book lover (as well as an animal lover…) and we often enjoy a quiet evening with our noses in a good book. It’s been quite an exchange of ideas and information as well. I’m unfamiliar with Swedish writers, so he recommends ones that he feels I’ll enjoy. And he is not familiar with a lot of authors whose books I love, so I give him suggestions that he tries out.


To help us is the wonderful Swedish inter-library loan system. For the cost of 5kr (less than $AU1), they will get in a book from any library in Norden for you. That’s right, not just Sweden, but NORDEN! (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland) for less than a dollar! What a bargain. They will also source books from all over the world for you – at a price. I’ve used this service a number of times and ordered in a lot of books that a small community library like mine can’t afford to have on their shelves. I simply search the Stockholm library system to see if the title is available there and if not, A search of the Royal Swedish Library site will usually turn up the book I need. It’s a terrific service and ensures that I never run out of quality reading matter. This weekend, I ordered another 5 from the Nynäshamn library website and they’ll let me know when they arrive.

You can’t ask for better than that on a cold snowy day. This is today's view from the church, looking across Svandammen.



Quite a contrast to 3 weeks ago .

Sweden is certainly a land of seasonal contrasts.