Inside Steve’s Brain Steve here means Apple’s creator Steve Jobs. This book gives you an easy intro to the story of Apple and the skills of Steve. Leander Kahney: Inside Steve’s Brain. Penguin Books, 2008.
Before You Travel Want to know more about history of Finland? Grab Professor David Kirby’s excellent book A Concise History of Finland, published by Cambridge University Press in 2006.
More than a Shop ”Is there something happening tonight?” a young woman asks, with an accent in her English which I cannot place, as she stands in the middle of bookshelves full of used books in Arkadia International Bookshop in Töölö, Helsinki. Ian Bourgeot, a charming English man in his late forties, gets up from his desk placed in front of a tiny stage, which gives a nice personal touch to this two-room store. “No show today,” he says. The woman answers with a slight frown. “I know. Shocking isn’t it! Last week we had four shows,” Bourgeot smiles, and recommends the woman to return tomorrow listen to a piano concert by a 15-years old debutant. Bourgeot’s two year old Arkadia International Bookshop isn’t just a store. It is also a place for people to present their skills in various arts, read extracts from their books, or just come and meet people in one of these hundred or so happenings a year. The word has spread out fast, especially in the international community of Helsinki, and the crowd in most happenings consists of mix of foreigners and natives. Bourgeot has lived in Finland for 15 years. His parents were the travelling kind, and he continued the lifestyle well into his adulthood. Finland is the country he has lived the longest, and it is the country he plans to stay in, too. There are a few reasons to Bourgeot’s decision, but the most beautiful to a Finn’s ear must be this: Bourgeot feels that in Finland one is first treated as a person, and only after seen through his or her nationality, gender or whatever any other characteristic. “Before moving to Finland, I lived in Paris. There one is trained to have the right clothes, the right manners, the right words. But here in Finland, one must work on being oneself. All the little tricks I learned in Paris did not work here, and I am very thankful for Finland for pushing me to find myself.”
Arkadia International Bookshop, Pohjoinen Hesperiankatu 9, Helsinki. www.arkadiabookshop.fi
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