Live Lagom - Book Review

It was only last year that I learned what the Danish term hygge meant (the art of cozy living, if you didn't know - oh, and it's pronounced "HOO-gah"), so I was determined to be the first one on the lagom (pronounced "LA-gom") bandwagon by reading the new book from Anna Brones called Live Lagom: Balanced Living, the Swedish Way.

And after reading the article in the January 29, 2018 issue of TIME magazine titled "Hygge? Lykke? Lagom? Huh? The language of life advice", it turns out I might have jumped on at just the right time.

So let's talk about the book. It's a cute little book filled with gorgeous pictures that will have you wishing you could be in them. Seriously. Can I take a stroll through that forest? Whose clean dining room is that? I don't want to bake fresh bread. I just want that loaf to magically appear on my plate.

Anywho, the point of this book is that Americans are all about excess and the Swedes are all about the Goldilocks principle: not too much, not too little, just right. They embody that principle in everything they do. Work, home, health, and the environment. And that's why the book is divided into different sections for those four topics with advice/tips on how the reader can incorporate lagom into his or her own work life, home life, health, and attitude toward the environment.

Some of it I totally get, and I have no problem using my vacation days at work or taking a coffee/fika break. I think that's lovely! But there's a reason why I don't spend $2500 on a sofa in my house or $500 on a pair of pants. I can't afford it! I understand that it's better to spend on pieces that will last longer instead of on fast-fashion or cheaper pieces that you'll have to replace every few years, but I'm not rich. So I don't know what that says about American paychecks and jobs versus Swedish paychecks and jobs.

While I like the idea of trying to achieve balanced living, I wasn't a complete fan of this book. I think I was expecting something different. I'm not really sure what, but I didn't really have any "aha" moment while reading the book.

I did however learn that my family has been misusing the word "smorgasbord" for years.

YEARS, people.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.