Ok, we liked this book because it has lots of pictures: pictures of wind turbines, pictures of people, pictures of a Danish table cloth, all sorts of pictures. We admit it.
We also liked it because it’s bilingual. You can practice your rusty Danish. And what English speaker doesn’t have a smattering of Danish tucked away in those little gray cells?
This is the story of Samsø: Denmark’s Renewable Energy Island off the eastern coast of Jutland. It’s a good story and more people should know about it. It’s a story about a people with a “can do” attitude toward the future. What group of islanders anywhere else in the world have built their own offshore wind farm? This is no token turbine or two. It’s ten modern turbines comprising 23 MW that’s intended to offset the island’s consumption of gasoline and diesel fuel.
The photos tell the story as much as the text. At times poetic, always thought provoking, many of the photos are dark, brooding we might say. Maybe that’s just a reflection of the Danish weather!
We particularly liked the photo of the tablecloth because it tells a story about Denmark. There’s the coffee cup, an ever present part of Danish gatherings, the blue patterned porcelain, another feature of Denmark, and typical Danish post cards. It tells the story of an island and its people at peace with itself and each other, of a community. That’s a story worth sharing.
Vingesus: Whisper of Wings by Malene Annikki Lunden, paper, 127 pages, many photographs, bilingual (Danish and English), ISBN 87-989530-0-1, 2003, sidebyside@wanadoo.dk; www.elverkongensdatter.dk.
