August Book Review - Hygge Introduction to the Danish Art of Cozy Living
Since the beginning of 2020, it feels like we have been spending a lot of time cooped up in our homes, and I am no exception to this predicament. Since I have been spending so much time in my home, I realized early on that my condo was not as welcoming or a cozy as I desired my living space to be. So, I started looking into different interior design styles and stumbled across Hygge.
Hygge (pronounced hue-guh) is the Danish word for "feeling of contentment and comfort" (pg 5) and this idea has transformed into an entire style of interior decorating. I found the idea of creating a space where I could feel comfort and contentment appealing, and so I started looking for more information and found a free Kindle book, so I decided to check it out.
The book I found is written by co-authors Amy White and Ryan James. It is meant to be a guide for those who are interested in learning more about what living a Hygge life looks like. While there is a lot of information that can be found on a variety of blogs online, being the bibliophile that I am, I was excited to find a single source for a broad overview of the idea of Hygge. Unfortunately, I found myself feeling that this book was more about the author's trying to push their narrow idea of what Hygge is rather than giving a general idea of what Hygge can look like, which was very disappointing. I wasn't expecting something truly profound since this was a free book on the Kindle, but I still feel that there could have been a more unbiased approach taken to presenting the information, or that they could have presented a broader array of information.
Favorite Quote: "By creating a cozy atmosphere..you'll be able to maximize the enjoyment that you get out of your life" (pg 71)
Things I Liked:
Firstly, there was some good information provided in the book. The authors covered what Hygge is and where it originated from quite thoroughly, as well as why they recommend that people should move towards designing their spaces and living their lives in a way that is more focused on doing what the reader finds to be comfortable rather than going with what is currently "on trend".
Another thing I liked was that they gave suggestions and examples in each section that relates to the topic at hand. For instance, in Chapter 3, the section about creating a Hygge home atmosphere, the authors gave several suggestions as to what kind of lighting gives a cozy feeling and examples of decor pieces that would work to covey feelings of comfort. These kinds of additions were nice at times because they provided a way for the reader to internalize the concepts being presented through concrete examples.
Things I did not like:
The first snag that ruined the rest of the book for me also appears in Chapter 3, where they made claims that "it's known that dimmer lights can cause people to be in a better mood than they otherwise would be under normal lighting conditions." (pg 21). However, they do not provide any resources to support this claim. Personally, when I am reading a claim like this being made in any sort of published work, I except a citation to be provided to show where the information supporting this claim can be found. The omissions of supporting information makes this seem more like a claim that is trying to be credible and is relying on the hope that the reader will not decide to do their own research to confirm the validity of the claim.
The second thing that bothered me relates to the examples presented. While I did appreciate that the addition by the authors in some chapters, there were examples that I felt at times were really specific and more reflected the authors' opinions on what is Hygge rather than on being examples of what could be Hygge. Particularly, in Chapters 6 and 7, the authors present hobbies and activities that are considered to be Hygge, but the examples are very specific, and I feel that based on the theory that Hygge living is supposed to be cozy and comfortable for the individual, there exists a plethora of cozy hobbies and activities that one could participate in, rather than a specific list of activities that do or do not count.
Lastly, with the digital formatting, there were some inconsistencies that, had I purchased the Kindle edition, might have been a little upsetting. There was inconsistency in the spacing of the content, sometimes it would be double-spaced while other times single-spaced. While this isn't something that affects the information presented, it does make the book feel towards the self-published end of the spectrum and this is something that does factor into the feeling of quality that is possessed by the work.
My Overall Rating:
Rating - 2 out of 5
This was a free book on Kindle, so it is possible that this rating seems harsh. However, I am rating this on the level of if I would recommend it for purchase, and I would not. If you can get this book for free using Amazon's Kindle app or using a Kindle E-reader if you have one, like I do, then this could be a good book to download. That being said, I feel that the information presented in this book wasn't anything that you couldn't find after doing a little bit of research on Google. I have already downloaded a few different books on Hygge using Kindle Unlimited so that I can compare this book to others written on the same subject. If you are interested to see how this book measure up to others, watch for my other reviews that will be coming soon!
