So a month ago, I returned to Stockholm to attend a wedding and while I was there I finally read a book at the Stadshuset. It felt good. So good in fact that I couldn't hide the dumb smile on face for a natural looking photo ...
The interesting thing about this is that it was not actually the idea of returning to Stockholm that motivated me to fulfill a wish made long ago, but rather the book I read en route to Stockholm which I bought at the airport in Toronto. The fateful book, which I am holding above and highly recommend, is 'Getting Stoned With Savages', by Maarten Troost.
He lived in Kiribati for a few years before working for the World Bank in Washington DC. The book starts off by juxtapositioning the two lifestyles as he describes arriving to work late one morning for an important meeting. He wrote that while Washington (or it could be any metropolitan city really) had every luxury available, such as chocolate, few of us big city people ever enjoy them. Or if you work 40 hours a week, when was the last time you not a only saw a sunset, but actually watched the sun set?!
It was the perfect timing for me to be reminded of this message, and for the remainder of my journey to Stockholm, I thought about every way I could truly experience and appreciate this charming city I once called home -- which included reading a book for a whole sunny afternoon at the Stadshuset!
I just started reading his first book 'The Sex Lives of Cannibals', which describes life in Vanuatu/Fiji and is even better according to the reviews posted on Amazon. I wonder if I will like his second book better since I read it first?! Life is often like that.
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