Of great literature and opulent flower arrangements

It is amazing how much one can learn about a country and its people by browsing in bookstores. On the face of it, our local Borders looks pretty much like an English bookstore. (It doesn’t look anything like a Swedish bookstore, but that’s mainly because there’s something odd about all Swedish stores that sets them apart from stores in any other country. When I figure out what that something is, I will let you know.)

Anyway, back to Borders. You will find all the usual sections – Art, Literature, History, Reference, Local Interest and so on. Just as you would expect. But look closer, and you will discover some interesting differences. For example, the section entitled Romance (as in romantic fiction, Mills and Boon, that sort of thing) takes up an entire aisle in Borders. To Mystery, they have dedicated a whopping eight shelves, or four aisles. Metaphysics of all things has almost a whole wall to itself, and as for Bible Studies – well, you can probably imagine.

Other surprisingly important subjects seem to be: Calendars (yes, I know it’s January, but I didn’t notice much difference in September), gift books (those tiny little things with only a handful of words on each page, entitled things like Ode To Girlfriends or Congratulations On Your Divorce (Why You’re Better Off Without Him), and all manner of self-help books (OK, so that one doesn’t surprise me).

Moreover, throughout all subjects, one can sense the wonderfully refreshing American attitude to money. I really do think it’s refreshing – and most of all, it’s honest. We Europeans lie constantly about money – about how much or little of it we have, about whether we want more of it, and about what we are prepared to do (or have already done) to get it. In the US, it is perfectly acceptable to discuss openly the fact that we all want money, some of us have more of it than others but we all wish we had more than we do and few people would turn down a legal opportunity to make some. (Marginally more people would turn down an illegal one.)

So wherever you go in Borders, it’s hard to avoid the topic of money. Metaphysics: How To Get Rich Using Astral Projection (so that’s what metaphysics is for – I always wondered). Cooking: How To Bake Cookies Good Enough To Sell. History: 19th Century Millionaires Tell Their Stories. And so on.

So did I succumb? Of course I did. Along with a yummy selection of Gloria Steinem, Nancy Friday, Thomas L. Friedman and Franz Kafka, I also came away with The Millionaire Mind by Thomas J. Stanley. Well, you never know. It’s worth a try at least, before one has to resort to astral projection.

After Borders, it was time for Michaels. For the uninitiated, Michaels is a craft store, which technically means that it should stock things like polystyrene balls and cones (to make, say, a decorative ice cream), paints, embroidery supplies, unfinished wooden boxes and stuff like that. Which it does. But at least half of the store’s surface area is taken up not with craft supplies but with plastic flowers, and other related decorative items.

And what a wonderful, irresistible orgy of plastic flowers it is! Now, I have to stress that not all of them are plastic, nor are all of them flowers. To name but a few, there are silk flowers, paper flowers, dried flowers, synthetic greenery in all imaginable materials and sizes, bamboo sticks, bizarre, curly grasses, straight grasses, branches with berries, branches without berries, synthetic weeds, garlands, pine cones, seashells, pebbles… And of course an array of accessories to complete your arrangement: Vases, bowls, styrofoam, decorative sand…

I could spend hours and hours in this wonderful jungle of everlasting, pseudo-natural beauty. Come to think of it, I probably did. Since I had already spent most of my pocket money in the bookstore, I had to keep a firm hold of myself, but watch this space – there is definitely a risk that my new home in time will turn into a plastic flower showroom.

So what’s your stance on plastic flowers? (I know, they’re really silk, but plastic just sounds so delightfully kitsch.) My dear husband predictably regards them as the naffest, most impossibly tasteless objects anyone could choose to display. He would probably rather keep the house void of decorative objects than fill it with synthetic ones. (Come to think of it, he would rather keep the house void of decorative objects period, but what does he know.)

When we first arrived in America, ready to set up a new home, friends and family back home wanted to know my thoughts on American interior design. Is it over the top, imposing and ornate, they asked, because that is the stereotypical picture we Europeans have of it. Well, I had to reply, like most stereotypes it isn’t completely untrue. There is certainly a lot of wall to wall carpeting in the US, plenty of heavy, dark wood furniture and traditional, frilly window coverings.

But you know what? After 35 years of European, blonde-wooded, monochrome, glass-and-brushed-steel minimalism, I like that! I have graduated, moved on to the next level. “Plush” is no longer a profanity to me, and I find the most appealing interiors the ones that are comfortable and soothing to the eye. And if that means opulent arrangements of synthetic flowers and wooden fruit, well, then I’m OK with that.

After this mammoth shopping spree, yours truly was struck down with the mother of all headaches. No, it’s nothing to do with the heavy weight of blatant consumerism on my shoulders – it’s the weather up here, the pressure changes can be really vicious. Or maybe it’s that strep throat that’s been lurking in the family. So after feeding the animals, supervising their homework and handing them over to their other keeper, I retired to bed. From where I deliver this report, before moving on to the interestingly entitled The Mommy Myth – The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined All Women by Susan J. Douglas and Meredith W. Michaels. More on that is sure to follow!