Fact 8: Iceland has the most books published per capita
Iceland publishes more books per person than any other country on Earth. With its tiny population, it produces an extraordinary number of titles every year—roughly one book for every ten people. Reading is embedded in Icelandic culture at a deeply structural level, not just as a leisure activity but as a national identity.
Christmas in Iceland is wrapped up in a tradition called “Jólabókaflóð” — the “Christmas Book Flood.” Every year in the weeks leading up to Christmas, publishers release a flood of new books, and Icelanders buy and give books as Christmas gifts at a scale that is almost unparalleled anywhere else. On Christmas Eve, it’s traditional to open your book gifts and spend the rest of the evening reading, often accompanied by chocolate. The concept has become well-known globally in recent years as something of an aspirational holiday tradition, but in Iceland, it’s simply how Christmas has always worked.
The literary culture connects deeply to Iceland’s older tradition of the Sagas—epic medieval prose narratives written in the 12th and 13th centuries, detailing the lives of Viking Age Icelanders with remarkable dramatic sophistication. The Sagas are still widely read in Iceland today, in their original Old Norse, which is quite close to modern Icelandic.
