Only three books this week, 12th to 18th November. One audiobook, All the Days of Our Lives, which is the final part of the trilogy I talked about last week. Incompetence, which I'd read before, and The Year of Living Danishly.
The Year of Living Danishly is non-fiction. It's written by a British free-lance journalist whose partner got a job working for Lego. This lead to them both moving to Denmark for a year.
Denmark, according to all sorts of polls, is the happiest country on earth, so Helen Russell set about trying to find out why this is so. The most interesting reason, to me, was how closely related to one another the Danish population is. Other countries which are high on the happiness index are also closely related to the Danish population, and there's a certain gene which is a factor in their contentment levels.
I like the idea of getting hygge (like, cosy and hibernating), and of working fewer hours. I can also see how high taxation combined with a great social security system and high faith in government to use the money properly would be really comforting. And I do like that people are very proud of being Danish and that the government pays for education, including Danish lessons for immigrants. I'm tempted to move there, particularly if I can work with geneticists at Copenhagen uni or if I have children.
Incompetence is a book I've read before. Rob Grant is one of the creator's of Red Dwarf though this book isn't really similar. More comic-noir. It's set in a world where it is illegal to fire anyone for being incompetent, and this has resulted in a bit of a clusterfuck world. Not realistic - an ability to fire people would result in more zero hour contracts and demotions, not necessarily completely shambles - but readable. Not exactly to my taste, but I liked it enough to read it twice so it must have something going for it.
I've been reading lots of books this week, I just haven't finished many. Expect a glut next week!
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