Midsommar Book Contest! Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 18, 2009 in Culture, Swedish Language
It’s almost summer! I am saying “almost”, because we all know that the summer season officially starts with midsommar. And speaking of midsommar – what are your plans?
I will spend the occasion in Vancouver, actually, I’m on my way there right now – I’m sitting at the airport while typing this.
But, it’s not airports I wanted to talk about today.
To celebrate the beginning of summer, I have something special planned for you.
I don’t know about you, but for me it just wouldn’t be summer without a dorky summer pop hit, beach and summer reading. You just can’t have a summer break and NOT read a funny, lighthearted book. Do you agree?
And I remember how some of you complained about how hard it is to get Swedish books abroad.
So, I’m going to help you out a bit with this book problem! To celebrate the beginning of summer, I thought a little something special was in order.
And tah-dah! We have our first annual Swedish Blog midsommar book contest.
The book you can win is “Populärmusik från Vittula” by Mikael Niemi. Which just happens to be one of my most favorite books, ever.
It was the winner of the August Prize for the best Swedish novel of 2000 (vinnare av Augustpriset som bästa svenska roman 2000). So, you can say it’s almost a classic.
I picked this book not because I have an extra copy sitting around (thought that’s true, too) but because of its location – a lovely little town called Pajala in the north of Sweden. And you know how much I love the far north! The rest of Sweden is really, well, the rest, if you live in the north.
This book has been translated into English, so if you want to read along with an English version, that’s possible, too. That’s another reason why I decided to give away this particular book, and not another. I want to make this Swedish reading experience as fun for you as possible, so even if you’re not confident you can manage all the way through in Swedish, you can follow along in English when you get tired.
OK, enough of me talking.
Do you want to win it?
All you need to do is to tell me in the comments section, på svenska, in 15 words or less, why I should send this book to you (and not to someone else). The deadline – June 30th.
Easy? Very!
Just remember when you leave your comment to enter a valid email address, it won’t be seen by other blog readers, but it’s visible on my end, and this is the email address, I will use to contact you, OK? Don’t leave your mailing address in the comment – I will ask you for it when my distinguished panel of judges (consisting of me, myself and I) selects the winner.
Oh, and one more thing – the contest is open only to subscribed readers of this blog (to subscribe click in the box to the right – it means that you will be getting new Swedish Blog posts by email) from countries other than Sweden. I know, I know, it doesn’t seem fair. But you guys in Sweden can just saunter down to your local library and read all summer long.
Trevlig midsommar!!!
Build vocabulary, practice pronunciation, and more with Transparent Language Online. Available anytime, anywhere, on any device.
About the Author: Transparent Language
Transparent Language is a leading provider of best-practice language learning software for consumers, government agencies, educational institutions, and businesses. We want everyone to love learning language as much as we do, so we provide a large offering of free resources and social media communities to help you do just that!
Comments:
Kevin Albrecht:
Min bröllop är juli 11 och jag ska vara gifta med en svenska tjej! 😉
Lars Hedbor:
Min svensk är inte så bra, men jag är lärande! Tak så mycket!
Justin:
Jag tror att du borde skicka den till mig, eftersom jag svarade först.
Renn Ibay:
Jag har redan många Svenska grammatik boker men inga Svenska noveler. Så snälla skicka mig det!
ren.vitros@gmail.com
Majlis Hanson:
Vancouver, Canada?
I live 2 hours from vancouver. Actually I was born here -notice my last name has
only one “s” and there is no hyphen betwwen “Maj” and “lis”?
Have fun hearing English speaking people trying to figure out the pronunciation of my name before giving it up to ask me instead.!
Started learning Swedish 12 years ago and still more or less at begining level!
You can tell how tremendous the difficulties I have been suffering,
especially speaking. Reading is much better and have practiced to write short
letters to imaginary friends/ relative in Sverige.
By the way just curious, what is your profession? Must be in something involving
wiring, journalist? weiter? Love your style. HBy the way, how do you find time to do this
on a regular basis? Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Your grammar
lessons many times complimented/ summed up what I had learnt from other
sources. Yours are concise, easier to grasp, suit my style.. Your cultural/ social
topics are awesome too.
By the way could you please give more examples when giving lessons in tenses,
verbs, verb conjugations (e.g. past participles, etc.
If you are heading to Vancouver Canada, Happy Father’s Day.
Mark Johnson:
Jag skulle få boken eftersom jag svarade först. 😉
(And I really need to work on my Swedish)
Christopher Murphy:
Om jag icke vinna boken, Jag tanker uppmuntran för Danmark i WCQ.
Majlis Hanson:
Vancouver, Canada?
I live 2 hours from vancouver. Actually I was born here -notice my last name has
only one “s” and there is no hyphen betwwen “Maj” and “lis”?
Have fun hearing English speaking people trying to figure out the pronunciation of my name before giving it up to ask me instead.!
Started learning Swedish 12 years ago and still more or less at begining level!
You can tell how tremendous the difficulties I have suffered, especially speaking
. Reading is much better and have practiced to write short letters to imaginary
friends/ relative in Sverige.
By the way just curious, what is your profession? Must be in something involving
wiring, journalist? Love your style. HBy the way, how do you find time to do this
on a regular basis? Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Your grammar
lessons many times complimented/ summed up what I had learnt from other
sources. Yours are concise, easier to grasp, suit my style.. Your cultural/ social
topics are awesome too.
By the way could you please give more examples when giving lessons in tenses,
verbs, verb conjugations (e.g. past participles, etc.
If you are heading to Vancouver Canada, Happy Father’s Day.
Carla:
Jag skulle vilja boken darfor jag gillar en redig historier, musik och min pojkvän svenska!
Renn Ibay:
Jag har redan många Svenska grammatika boker men inga noveler. Så snälla skicka mig det!!!!
Luke (Sydney):
…så att vi kan vara det bästa vän för alltid. 🙂
Judy Jones:
Hej!
Jag tycker att jag skulle vinna priset. Jag har inte läst en riktig svensk bok… mmmm…. det har varit ungefär 30 år! Det kan var kul att prova det igen. Jag är amerikansk kvinna (från New York City), och budde som utbytesstudent 1979-1980 i Malmö. Jag får öva svenska lite gran när jag besöker den svenska kyrka (inte ofta) och läsa den här blogg. Jag vill aldrig glömma språket! Jag älsker det! Men jag är inte lika duktig som jag brukade var. Att läsa den boken kan hjälpa mig behålla språket.
Tack för chansen att vinna boken!
Judy
Kenia:
En bok skulle vara för mig det bästa minnet av den här underbara bloggen!
Carla:
Jag skulle det boken darfor jag gillar musik, bra historier och min Svenska pojkvän!
Anna:
Hi guys!!!
This is great!!! All your answers are fabulous and it will be really hard to choose a winner. (I may have to do a random drawing!!!)
And keep them coming! If you haven’t entered yet, there’s still time. Just leave a comment and tell me in Swedish why you should win!
🙂
Samantha:
Jag kan inte längre ta kurser men jag vill fortfarande öva mig i svenska!
Michael Boyd:
Man måste läsa för att lära sig. Tack på dig!
Mike
Minty:
Jag kan sa lite svenska att jag har bett pojkvannen att be dig om boken 😀 😛
Linda från kalifornien:
I’m in Sweden now, so it wouldn’t be fair to enter the contest, however, I shall shop the book at Bokia before I return home to the states. Good Luck everyone!
Maria Cajas:
Jag skulle få boken afterson alla mina boken på Svenska ar försvunnen och därför jag har en sorglig känsla och lettar for att få en.
Ekvador
Kristina:
Jag är en tuff kvinna med en Saab, inte en Volvo. Boken låter fascinerande.
huckleberry finn:
This is great!!! All your answers are fabulous and it will be really hard to choose a winner. (I may have to do a random drawing!!!).Jag tycker att jag skulle vinna priset. Jag har inte läst en riktig svensk bok… mmmm…. det har varit ungefär 30 år! Det kan var kul att prova det igen.Reading is much better and have practiced to write short letters to imaginary
friends/ relative in Sverige.