Weekend Conversation Starters : Jólabókaflóð

[Messy Nessy Chic]   So today I learned about Jólabókaflóð, an Icelandic tradition where books are exchanged as Christmas Eve presents and the rest of the night is spent reading them and eating chocolate. Sounds like my kind of night. [Image]( Jólabókaflóð (we can’t quite pronounce it either) has turned Iceland into a nation of bookaholics, and roughly translates as ‘Christmas book flood’– which perfectly sums up our vibe over the holidays. We’ve been sending off copies [“Don’t be a Tourist in Paris” and “Don’t be a Tourist in New York”]( to homes all around the world in time for Christmas to be devoured along with plenty of chocolate by the fireside. But as the final cutoff date for deliveries via Santa’s slay fast approaches next week, we’re ringing the bell for “LAST ORDERS!” And Psssst! [Order 2 books or more]( from the MNC boutique by Thursday 16th December and get FREE Express Shipping with DHL. To ensure your books find their place under the tree in time, just enter the discount code “FREEDHL” at checkout. And a merry Jólabókaflóð to you too! With love from Paris, [Nessy]   [Seven Visionary Spaces Du Jour](  [tumblr_e0175977e724e8e6d23a83cc5c6065c4_353ffb06_1280-1]( The art and science of the enclosure of space is all around us, shelter-creation being traditionally its key function but oftentimes architecture is also a mouthpiece for broadcasting a message through carefully crafted iconography. So-called ‘alternative’ structures vary from intellectual triumphs of the unconventional to purely attention-seeking visual bubble gum. It’s often somewhere in the…  [Continue Reading](   [A Decade before the World had the Internet, France was Online & Hooked on Minitel](  [tumblr_cbbeae3b06c0a748283771aaca3b8012_d5636bc5_1280]( When the world wide web entered our homes in the mid 90s, the French must have been feeling a distinct sense of déjà vu. After all, anyone in France with a telephone had been online an entire decade before the internet came along. From 1978 to 2012, there was Minitel, one of the most successful pre-World…  [Continue Reading](   [The Secret Lives of Cowboy “Buckaroo” Poets](  [Campfire]( When they weren’t riding bucking broncos, gun-slinging at the saloon, herding cattle and exploring the Wild West, it’s hard to picture that some American cowboys might also have been nurturing a talent for writing rhythmic verse. For more than a century however, cowboys have been unlikely and overlooked devotees of the literary genre that’s more…  [Continue Reading](   [When Victorians Embraced Same Sex Marriage for Women Over A Century Ago](  [13qf1f55m1f51]( It’s not widely known that same-sex unions were recognised in Ancient Greece and Rome, Mesopotamia and some regions of China, ranging from informal relationships to highly ritualised unions. Perhaps even more surprising, is that that those notoriously tight-lipped Victorians were open to it as well. There was a loophole in the 19th and early 20th century, when…  [Continue Reading](   [13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DLXXX)](  [Cineorama]( 1. The Cinéorama At the 1900 Paris Exposition  [Continue Reading](  Interested in Becoming a MessyNessy Keyholder? [Apply now to unlock the Vault!](    [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( [Blog]( [To read more from MessyNessyChic visit the Blog]( and make sure you keep getting these email by adding contact@messynessychic.com to your address book or whitelist us. Our postal address: In a Café, Paris 75001 Want out of the loop? [Unsubscribe](.