If you’ve arrived expecting a review of Norwegian Wood , the 1987 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, we regret to inform you that this is a review of an altogether different classic with the same title from Scandanavia. (We are, however, huge fans of Murakami-San!)
This may be the most unusual best-selling book of all time.
Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking, and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way by Lars Mytting has sold over 200,000 copies in his native Norway!
And yes, it simply looks at how you collect, chop, stack, dry and burn wood so that you can heat your home in a natural way as your ancestors would have done.
This Is Not Just Pictures Of Wood
We like wood, but we think if you picked up a book that was entirely pictures of wood (or, perhaps, Lars with some wood) you’d be bored to tears pretty quickly.
But that’s not what this is about. It’s about how you can heal through finding a bigger purpose in life. It’s a look at how we can live better with nature and it’s about a passion that needs to be explained.
Lars opens the door on the slight strangeness (from an American perspective) of Scandinavian culture and has stuffed Norwegian Wood full of interesting facts and quirky anecdotes.
An American Take
One really nice thing about this book though is that it has been given a fresh coat of paint and Lars and his publishers have adapted it to be fully relevant to an American audience.
All the resources listed in the appendices are American resources.
Thus, if you’ve ever wanted to make and burn your own fuel – this is a super useful handbook too. If not, we think you’ll find this as charming as we did, anyway.
You can find Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking, and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way by Lars Mytting online.
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