For today’s reading, I have chosen a very well-loved story about a super strong girl called Pippi Långstrump (English: Pippi Longstocking). The red-haired, freckled girl is a special character created by Astrid Lingren and named by Lingren’s daughter, Karin. Pippi is playful, unpredictable, and unconventional.

I bought the book in Stockholm during a business trip in Sweden in 2015. Happy listening!

TAIPEI, TAIWAN (2019)

For today’s reading, I have chosen a barnbok (children’s book) from McDonald’s Happy Meal Readers (HMR). I only have this one for the Swedish market but I understand that the McDonalds Tiny Detectives HMR (total: 12 books) were also available at McDonalds Singapore and Malaysia. I don’t know what possessed me to order a Happy Meal but I suspect the word “book” has something to do with it—that’s how I ended up with this little gem.

This book is the Swedish edition of Cressida Cowell’s De små detektiverna: Finns det liv på havets djupaste botten? (In English: The Tiny Detectives: Is there Life at the Bottom of the Deepest Ocean?) Happy listening!

HUSKVARNA, SWEDEN (2019)

When I started this paint-by-numbers project more than four weeks ago—painting only on weekends—I hadn’t expected it to be such a time-consuming, back-breaking exercise. But THE KISS is worth it.

Will I do this again? Most likely […]

For today’s reading, I have chosen the instruction pages from my bumper Sudoku book, 1001 Sudoku. It’s a brick of a book at over 600 pages thick, but not to worry, the reading is only from pages 4 and 5. Happy listening!

Sambal my red typewriter has been acting wonky ever since the move to Sweden. It’s jumping one keystroke every four characters. This is why you’re seeing “START WEIGHT” spelled strangely above. At first I was quite annoyed and saddened by it, but after a while I decided to just embrace its wonkiness.

This is also the period of the 2022 Parliamentary election in Sweden. […]