Tuesday Tome - Selma Lagerlöf

I've been doing a lot of sorting and packing books in recent weeks. My wife and I are currently in the process of moving which means I'm figuring out which books will be going where – office library, new home, or garage sale. It's a little tedious but also surprisingly enjoyable.

One of the fun things about the process is seeing and touch every book on the shelves. In some cases, it's a bit like running into an old friend. It takes me back to the time I first read that book, or sparks a memory of a particular passage, character, or idea I took away from it. Sometimes it reminds me of the person who gave or recommended the book to me.

One of the books I came across and packed this past week was The Girl from Marsh Croft and Other Short Stories by Selma Lagerlöf. This book was given to me by my friend Morten Sager (from Gothenburg, Sweden) while he was studying at the University of Minnesota. Both of us were avid readers, so I gave Morten a book of short stories by Flannery O'Connor and he gave me a couple books of short stories by Selma Lagerlöf. It was a quintessential cultural exchange and both of us were better off for it.

If you enjoy short stories but have never heard of Selma Lagerlöf, I would encourage you to try to do a little searching. English translations of her books are not that easy to find, but worth the effort. And now that I've rediscovered her book in my library, I'm setting this one aside in my short stack for summer reading.

Read more about Selma Lagerlöf and The Girl from Marsh Croft.

CLICK HERE to get a free Kindle version of The Girl from Marsh Croft.