Rural Route Bookstore - Calendars, Language and Dictionaries

Books about Farm Life, Small Town Life, the Midwest, and Scandinavian-Americans

Featuring the Heartwarming Humor of "Those Lutheran Ladies"

Calendars

Rural Route Bookstore generally carries 5 calendars each year: Paulstad's Vision and Verse ones from Norway and Sweden; the Splendor of Norway and Splendor of Sweden ones; and the square one by Swedish artist, Carl Larsson. (If some of you have requests for other Scandinavian or Rural versions for 2010, I would like to hear from you and will try to obtain them).

Calendars for 2010 are usually available in late June. If you are interested in getting one (or five or ten or 74) for next year and want to make sure you place your order in time, use the link questions@ruralroutebookstore.com    Enter "2010 Calendar Reservation" in the Subject line, and use the e-mail text box to list what Calandars you are interested in and your phone number. I will either e-mail or phone you when we have further information on next year's copies.

I know some of you wanted to purchase a few more this year, but I was out of certain ones. As I wrote earlier, "Great Aunt Emma has never shared the secret ingredients in her fruitcake, and wouldn't admit what they were if asked. Unlike her fruitcake, the 2009 Scandinavian Calendars do not increase in flavor over time. After all, the calendars are not soaked in apricot brandy and rum, even though the beautiful artwork could leave you in a stupor. Remaining 2009 calendars are drastically marked down and no more will be ordered this year."

At this point -- mid January 2009, we have sold out of almost all 2009 calendars.

Norway: Visions and Verse of Vikingland 2009 Calendar is Sold Out.

Splendor of Norway 2009 Calendar is Sold Out.

Carl Larsson's Art Calendar 2009 Calendar is Sold Out.

Sweden: Visions and Verse of a Land and its People by Paulstad Classic Calendars

Paulstad's 2009 Collector's Calendar of Sweden is indeed a collector's item, as gorgeous as it has been in the past years. The photography is wonderful and covers 12 different aspects of Swedish culture from magnificent rural scenery to children, church interiors, reindeer and a young "pojke" playing the fiddle.

The 2009 Swedish calendar has delightful "Dala" painting by artist, Bobbie Peterson, winner of many awards for her artistry. The calendar concludes with an explanation by Peterson of "Dala" painting in general, and of the style and colors she used for the various months. Bobbie Peterson's Swedish traditional painting is also featured in Our Beloved Sweden.

Similar to the Norwegian calendar mentioned above, Paulstads have designed this calendar to include short verses or proverbs in both Swedish and English for each month, and have included the Scandinavian tradition of "name days". Included as well are special dates in Canada, America and Sweden from Nyårsdagen to Nobeldagen when the Nobel Prizes are awarded, holidays, special church calendar days, the birth dates of famous Swedes and dates significant to Scandinavia's history.

More a work of art than a calendar, if you are the kind of person who highlights special lines in books, there is enough room on this well-designed calendar to mark down when John Deere Day, the annual Lutefisk Supper at church and Midsommarsdagen will be held in 2009.

(The Paulstad Classic Calendars are sized to fit the frame some of you purchased some years ago. Paulstad's 12-month calendar is 9 1/4" X 13".)

CAL-P09S Sweden      ~~$12.95~~    $8.00 One copy remaining

Language

KlikkNorsk (CD-ROM) Nancy Aarsvold, Louis Janus, & Margaret Hayford O'Leary

Learn Norwegian with the click of a mouse!

KlikkNorsk is an interactive CD-ROM for both Mac and Windows consisting of a Norwegian phrase-a-day calendar, and a grammar overview with exercises. It is aimed at students who are at the beginning and intermediate levels of Norwegian. Currently it is used with third semester students of Norwegian at St. Olaf College. When you insert the CD-ROM, a web browser will open automatically. All files are provided on the CD so you do not need an Internet connection.

The program was developed by three experienced Norwegian language instructors: Nancy Aarsvold and Margaret Hayford O'Leary of St. Olaf College, and Louis Janus of the University of Minnesota. The instructions and explanations are in English so this can easily be used by people trying to learn Norwegian on their own. All phrases are pronounced by a native speaker.

REF-2 CD-ROM $29.95

Dictionaries

For several decades the name, Einar Haugen, struck fear in many, many students of Norwegian. It meant frequent visits to the language lab to listen to reel-to-reel tapes and late night dorm hours, but it also meant quality. Students at Norwegian Lutheran colleges in America spent as much time memorizing dialogues from Spoken Norwegian (a prime language text by Haugen) as they did attending chapel and choir rehearsals! Now the grand-daddy of Scandinavian professors is perhaps best known for his excellent dictionary.

This 60,000-word Norwegian-English dictionary lists the "bokmål" and "nynorsk" words in alphabetical order rather than treating them as two separate alphabets, and contains detailed information on grammar and pronunciation, cross-references and examples of usage. Like Haugen, this highly regarded book has become the grand-daddy of all Norwegian-English dictionaries.

These dictionaries make learning Norwegian or Swedish at a young age easier and more enjoyable than ever!

Each book has over 500 entries with a colorful illustrations, the phonetic pronunciation, and the English equivalent. Word entries include people, animals, colors, numbers and objects that children encounter and use every day. 94 pages. Ages 5-10.

Scandinavian-American and Rural Humor Books