Dr Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two. This is the world's #1 archaeology blog according to 
My part-time employer, the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, has been publishing books for over two centuries and rents a huge storage space for books in central Stockholm. Most of the stock isn't moving very fast. In fact, a lot of it hasn't moved at all since Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee.
Storage is expensive. The Academy now feels that a lot of the funds devoted to storing these old books would be better used in, for instance, scanning the books and putting them on-line for free.
On Saturday 27 October, the Academy's book store is opened to the public, and most of the books will be sold for 50 kronor (c. $8). A bag. Yes: fill a bag with books, pay 50 kronor, walk out into autumnal Stockholm a richer and happier person.
Most of the books on sale are scholarly ones published from 1920--2002, mainly on archaeology, numismatics, history, Medieval art and architecture, building restoration, churches, runology, heritage management, philology, lit-crit and theology. Also excavation reports and a few children's titles.
No pre-orders accepted. Be at Lagerhotellet, Rosenlundsgatan 34 A, Södermalm, Stockholm, from 10:00 to 16:00 on Saturday 27 October!
[More blog entries about böcker, arkeologi, läsning, historia, Stockholm, bokrea, numismatik, medeltiden, vikingar, vikingatiden.]
Comments
Sounds interesting, although a bit far away for me to drop by.
Perhaps you would consider donating some choise items to Projekt Runeberg for scanning?
Posted by: Hans Persson | October 15, 2007 11:18 AM
Do you have any idea how bad you hurt me, telling us about this when I can't be there to haul off a 100 pounds of books?
Posted by: Mary | October 15, 2007 12:10 PM
Thanks Hans, I'm sort of in charge of on-line publishing, so I'll definitely have to look into that.
Mary, dry your eyes, most of the books are in Swedish!
Posted by: Martin R | October 15, 2007 3:18 PM
my goodness!!
Martin, please keep us informed on how online publishing goes!
Posted by: Denis Vlasov | October 15, 2007 3:27 PM
Students excavate village remains
Posted by: ivy privy | October 16, 2007 8:26 AM
Here is the list of the books that will be on sale (most are in swedish, lots and lots of archaeo candy
http://www.vitterhetsakad.se/aktuellt/aktuellt.html#anchorbokrea
See you among the books come the 27th
Posted by: Magnus Reuterdahl | October 16, 2007 4:47 PM
Damn, I envy you!
I wonder whether this is worth flying in from Germany? And learning Swedish of course...
I think it might be.
Posted by: Mathias | October 17, 2007 5:42 AM
Books in Swedenish would make them even more enticing. Bet there is so real cool swords and boats and houses and stuff in the drawings. And it's really not that much different from English, relative some some of those languages out there. Think of it, 10 million, +/-, folks having thier own language. Id be like efn Missippi n Arkinsaw decides to git der own langige.
Posted by: Mary | October 17, 2007 12:50 PM