Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking, and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way

The latest Scandinavian publishing phenomenon is not a Stieg Larsson thriller, and it’s not the comfort of Danish Hygge. It’s Lars Mytting’s Norwegian Wood, a full-color practical book about the art and craft of handling wood for heating that has become an international bestseller, selling over 200,000 copies in Norway and Sweden.

＂You don’t need to have a wood-burning stove or fireplace to be captivated by the craft and lore surrounding a Stone Age method of creating heat.＂ ―Boston Globe

Norwegian Wood provides useful advice on the rustic hows and whys of taking care of your heating needs, but it’s also a thoughtful attempt to understand man’s age-old predilection for stacking wood and passion for open fires. Chapters include:

• The Cold
• The Forest
• The Tools
• The Chopping Block
• The Woodpile
• The Seasoning
• The Stove
• The Fire

The author, Lars Mytting, writes, ＂The factual material in this book represents the distilled wisdom of encounters with people who are passionate about wood, enthusiasts as well as professional researchers. I have benefitted greatly from my conversations with experts in the fields of combustion and silviculture. . . . Along the way I’ve tried out most of the techniques I’ve been introduced to. I’ve dried finely chopped oak in our kitchen oven, struggled to build a beehive woodpile, miscalculated the trajectory of a felled pine. And I’ve been on a quest to discover the soul of the wood fire.＂ With his help, you’ll begin your quest to discover the joys of wood and wood fire.

An intriguing window into the exoticism of Scandinavian culture, the book also features enough inherently interesting facts and anecdotes and inspired prose to make it universally appealing. The US edition is a fully updated version of the Norwegian original and includes an appendix of US-based resources and contacts.

Lars Mytting was born in Fåvang, Norway, in 1968. He is an author and journalist. He has written two novels, both of which met with critical acclaim, and the first was published in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Finland.