Rose, I hope he enjoys his trip. If he wants any advice or recommendations, let me know (just send me a private message).

I can recommend plenty of books. Just wondering whether you prefer fiction or non-fiction? You mention cheerful, so I'm not going to recommend any detective stories. The Icelandic ones that get translated tend to be of the "Scandinavian bleak realism" type.

I can recommend The Fish can Sing and Iceland's Bell by Halldór Laxness. Both are historical novels, the former about a young boy growing up in Reykjavík in the early years of the 20th century, the other about a poor farmer in the 18th century who is convicted for a murder and escapes in order to go to Denmark to appeal the judgment before the king. It's the first in a trilogy but can be read as an independent work. Also Cristianity at Glacier/Under the Glacier (the latter is the newest translation). It's a humorous look at religion and magic.

You might also want to try Letters from Iceland by W.H. Auden and Louis NacNeice.

I'll post more as I think of them.

P.S. You might want to check out my Iceland photoblog (see enclosed link).

Here is a link that might be useful: Iceland etc.

Netla, thanks! Tom (my husband) will be in a small town in the northwest called Bildudalor. He is really excited about this trip. I have forwarded to him the books you suggested, since he is also an avid reader. Mysteries are his favorites, especially mysteries that give the flavor of a place or a time. As for me, I'm not so fond of bleak realism, Scandinavian or otherwise. I don't require endless and artificial good cheer, but I find quite enough bleakness occurs naturally in real life. I look forward to any suggestions you make.

And I really enjoyed your blog.

Rosefolly

Since you're also looking for books for him, I will mention two Icelandic mystery authors: Arnaldur Indridason and Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Both are good at the bleak realism stuff. Yrsa's crimes tend towards the bizarre and she brings in paranormal elements (the kind where you can decide for yourself how to interpret things) and humour. Arnaldur's books are more straight mysteries, with a gloomy detective who has family problems. Both give a very good sense of place.

My father, a military Air Force man, was given orders for Iceland in 1957, our family was allowed to accompany him.

My family consisted of the parents and four girls. In all our travels, our two years spent in Iceland was by far the most memorable. We loved it, it was exciting, different, beautiful. My greatest memory is as a small child, climing impossibly huge boulders left behind by glaciers - acres and acres of them for seemingly miles. Behind this land of boulders could be seen a huge mountain which always had a trail of smoke coming from the center. Always. Oh, the scary stories we told each other about that mountain and what it could do to us if it ever exploded!

I could see it all right outside my bedroom window, which was located in a converted military barracks, my family called the top floor home.

The northern lights, I will never forget the sight.

How lucky we all were to have that experience!

The base was located right outside of Reykjavik. The most wonderful countryside, so beautiful in high summer!

The people were lovely and very kind to us all. One of the high and memorable experiences of my entire life, I'm so grateful for all the memories we managed to retain even as young children.