I greatly enjoyed Nancy Campbell’s “The Library of Ice” last year, so when I was alerted that she’d written this gem of a book about snow and its cultural and mythological status I just had to say yes to a copy. I’ve said this before recently, but once again: great Christmas present.
It’s a lovely object and the contents, fifty words for snow and/or ice from around the world, both fascinating and strangely moving, and with a strong underlying message about climate change, as so many of the snowfields and glaciers mentioned are disappearing with global warming.
Each short chapter has the same format: a snowflake image on the facing page, the word in the original language, a translation into English and a note of which language it belongs to. Happily, this includes American Sign Language, when it comes to “Snowboarding”. The text below could be anything from an imaginary tale of a cave artist to a discussion of philosophy, climate science or mountaineering. We move from the most traditional craft activities to state-of-the-art mapping of snow leopard populations across borders and we even find places where people haven’t set foot out of respect for holy mountains and diminishing icefalls. I did love this theme of respect that resonated through the book.
You learn a lot even in the short texts: did you knowthat parts of the Antarctic are officially desert with no snow falling (actually I did know that but I do read a lot of polar exploration stuff). It was good to come across terms I recognised from other reading – sastrugi for instance, those pesky ridges that form on ice sheets but also help you navigate in poor light conditions.
Not every word about snow describes something that actually happens (I mean, Icelandic has a word for railway station and Iceland has no trains, so this is not uncommon, but it’s still fun). The chapter on the Thai word for snow revolves around whether it has actually ever snowed in Thailand or not. And there’s fake snow and a fascinating piece about the company that makes most of it for the world’s film industry.
Campbell is a careful writer, making sure she honours traditional and indigenous people, never drawing amusement where it’s not warranted, and noting colonial pasts and modern incursions into pristine places.
The book is a beautiful hardback with decorated cloth covers rather than a dust jacket. It’s printed in dark blue ink, and every entry is accompanied by a unique, stunning image of a snowflake – these are taken from the first known photographs of snow, by Wilson Bentley, who died in the 1930s.
Thank you to the publisher, Elliot and Thompson, for sending me a copy in return for an honest review. I am last on the blog tour, but you can see all the previous bloggers here!
Nov 27, 2020 @ 11:46:27
A very enticing review. I’m looking forward to ushering in proper winter with this one.
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Nov 29, 2020 @ 18:42:16
I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!
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Nov 27, 2020 @ 15:46:24
Sounds lovely, Liz – a beautiful object and interesting content! 😀
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Nov 29, 2020 @ 18:42:34
Always good when they coincide!
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Nov 27, 2020 @ 16:00:56
A fascinating sounding book, and you say a beautiful object too, just in time for the Christmas book buyers.
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Nov 29, 2020 @ 18:42:56
I’m sure it will be under many trees – I hope so, anyway!
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Nov 28, 2020 @ 08:53:16
I loved The Library of Ice but wasn’t sure if this one would be a bit thin on content. It’s good to hear that you thought it was worthwhile.
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Nov 29, 2020 @ 18:43:16
It wasn’t the huge detailed book that was but there’s plenty to chew on!
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Nov 28, 2020 @ 15:11:19
oooh i like the sound of that! I have a ‘thing’ for snow!
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Nov 29, 2020 @ 18:43:41
You should get this, then!
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Nov 29, 2020 @ 14:33:03
You just blew my mind about the no trains in Iceland thing… I have BEEN to Iceland, and never noticed while I was there that there were no trains (and it never occurred to me until this very moment when you mentioned it). I guess it makes sense… you must need a large enough population to support that. Language is so weird!
And yeah, HAS it ever snowed in Thailand? One would think not, but weather is weird… thanks for all the food for thought this morning!
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Nov 29, 2020 @ 18:44:20
I think because I tried to learn Icelandic it stood out. They are planning a line from the airport to Reykjavik. The weather is too extreme, too, of course!
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