Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living by Linnea Dunne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I feel like I was perhaps unfairly influenced whilst reading this, as it was so soon after finishing The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World’s Happiest People , as there are many similarities to both the content and the style of the books.
Lagom has many of the same ideas or lifestyle philosophies of the Lykke and it’s predecessor The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well and is published in the same format, a rather small and compact yet beautiful hardback book with a focus on sleek design accompanied by stunning photos.
However I found that Lagom had a lack of.. focus or flow throughout the book, and whilst it too had lovely pictures of homes that were ‘just enough’ and not too showy, that minimalist yet cosy feel of IKEA, there were also several design flaws – mostly dark text on dark backgrounds. As someone with perfect eyesight I struggled reading parts of the book due to this – however this is down really to the publisher rather than the author, I would really have thought that in 2018, accessibility would be an essential component to a professionally published book?
Plus points were really interesting information about community living and facts about the focus on home life/worklife balance and things like shared parental leave. There’s also several recipes that may get used particularly at Christmas.
Overall I gave it a 3/5 because I liked it but didn’t love it, however if you’re a Scandophile like me then it’s probably worth laying your hands on.
Culturenator 