The Museum of whales you will never see
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
and other excursions to Icelands's most unusual museums
To the finder of this book:
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as your referring member. Be on the lookout for other books left in the "Wild"!
Welcome to BookCrossing, a unique community of book lovers, sharing their libraries with the world. This book is now yours to read, enjoy, keep or pass on to another reader.
The BookCrossing ID, which you entered in the "Enter a BCID" box on the website, is unique to this copy of this book. If you make a journal entry (either anonymously, or as a BookCrossing member) all previous readers of this actual book will be notified by email, and can follow the book as it travels around from reader to reader.
BookCrossing is free to join, completely confidential (you are known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address) and a great deal of fun. If you choose to join please consider using me Rubyrebel
as your referring member. Be on the lookout for other books left in the "Wild"!
The wishlist-tag book arrived safely today; thanks so much!
Later: This is a charming, atmospheric, often quirky look at several unusual Icelandic museums, along with the lives of the people who founded them. The author weaves in a lot of personal memoir and travel experience, along with reactions to the museums themselves - whether they're more formal displays of well-documented items or something resembling an elderly relative's attic!
I'd assumed that the title referred to a museum about whales that one couldn't see, either because they were extinct or perhaps were fictional - but instead it's the "museum of whales" itself that you will never see, for reasons that make sense, however frustrating they might be.
There are touches of whimsy as well, such as the "points of reference" table of weights, distances, and currency; in "distance," for example, the author provides a value in ells, yards, meters, and... the length of a narwhal (?).
The first museum in the book is the Icelandic Phallological Museum, a museum of penises - mostly from animals, and most of those from Iceland or its seas, though there are some unexpected entries from elsewhere. (The section on the, um, human donation gets darkly interesting; apparently someone was determined to donate his member - post mortem - and happily filled out all the necessary paperwork, but for some reason the appendage was not properly preserved and is... not a very appealing example of its category. So the museum's in the market for another one.)
In between the longer entries there are some one-to-two-page entries about yet more obscure museums, with some of these having the charm of a rumor of elves in the woods...
There's a section on Petra's Stone Collection, which is just what it says - a vast collection of stones that Petra thought were interesting, accumulated to the point where they spread across the yard. Other sections feature birds, another has assemblies of household objects, yet another deals with the rise and fall of the herring fisheries - something that caused a boom/bust cycle that devastated Icelandic economy. Another deals with the history of sorcery and witchcraft in Iceland - which includes some truly appalling historical instances of brutality and slaughter. (Part of that museum involves memorials to the worst of these, in hopes that people will not forget the victims...)
And there's much more, each entry featuring cultural and historical context, and the author's personal thoughts and reactions. Somber and funny, surprising and unsettling - quite an experience!
Later: This is a charming, atmospheric, often quirky look at several unusual Icelandic museums, along with the lives of the people who founded them. The author weaves in a lot of personal memoir and travel experience, along with reactions to the museums themselves - whether they're more formal displays of well-documented items or something resembling an elderly relative's attic!
I'd assumed that the title referred to a museum about whales that one couldn't see, either because they were extinct or perhaps were fictional - but instead it's the "museum of whales" itself that you will never see, for reasons that make sense, however frustrating they might be.
There are touches of whimsy as well, such as the "points of reference" table of weights, distances, and currency; in "distance," for example, the author provides a value in ells, yards, meters, and... the length of a narwhal (?).
The first museum in the book is the Icelandic Phallological Museum, a museum of penises - mostly from animals, and most of those from Iceland or its seas, though there are some unexpected entries from elsewhere. (The section on the, um, human donation gets darkly interesting; apparently someone was determined to donate his member - post mortem - and happily filled out all the necessary paperwork, but for some reason the appendage was not properly preserved and is... not a very appealing example of its category. So the museum's in the market for another one.)
In between the longer entries there are some one-to-two-page entries about yet more obscure museums, with some of these having the charm of a rumor of elves in the woods...
There's a section on Petra's Stone Collection, which is just what it says - a vast collection of stones that Petra thought were interesting, accumulated to the point where they spread across the yard. Other sections feature birds, another has assemblies of household objects, yet another deals with the rise and fall of the herring fisheries - something that caused a boom/bust cycle that devastated Icelandic economy. Another deals with the history of sorcery and witchcraft in Iceland - which includes some truly appalling historical instances of brutality and slaughter. (Part of that museum involves memorials to the worst of these, in hopes that people will not forget the victims...)
And there's much more, each entry featuring cultural and historical context, and the author's personal thoughts and reactions. Somber and funny, surprising and unsettling - quite an experience!
Journal Entry 4 by 
GoryDetails
at -- See Release Notes For Details in Salem, Massachusetts USA on Wednesday, September 27, 2023
GoryDetails at -- See Release Notes For Details in Salem, Massachusetts USA on Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Released 2 mos ago (9/27/2023 UTC) at -- See Release Notes For Details in Salem, Massachusetts USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I plan to leave this book somewhere in Salem, possibly at or near the Proctor's Ledge memorial to the victims of the witch trials, or on a bench near the harbor. Hope someone enjoys it! [See other recent releases in MA here.]
** Released for the 2023 You're Such an Animal challenge. **
** Released for the 2023 Keep Them Moving challenge. **
