Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.07.2019, Side 50

The Time
Traveller
Eyþór Jóvinsson rolls back the years in
The Old Bookstore of Flateyri
Words & Photo: John Rogers
The tiny Westfjords town of Flat-
eyri juts out into the blue sea of
Önundarfjörður on a thin spit of
land. The main street has a quiet
café, an empty sports field and a
lonely gas station. On the pave-
ment, a sole sign proudly pro-
claims: “Home of Iceland’s oldest
store.”
The store in question is The
Old Bookstore. I walk into the
wood-lined storefront to find the
shopkeeper, Eyþór Jóvinsson, be-
hind the counter. He’s dressed in a
tweed three-piece suit, and smiles
broadly, saying, “Hello! Welcome!”
Licensed to book
Eyþór, it turns out, is the great-
grandson of the store’s founder.
“My great-grandfather started this
business,” he says. He
gestures to a display of
open ledgers with small
hand-written entries
filling the pages. “We
can trace every penny
that has come from the
business from day one.
I can tell you what we
sold exactly 100 years
ago.”
Inquiring about the
reading habits of people
four generations ago,
however, is a no-go. “It
was just a general store,
back then,” says Eyþór. “In 1919, we
didn’t even sell books. You needed
a license to sell books back in those
days. In 1920, we got a license. One
corner was the book section. Ev-
erything else was food.”
An eccentric selection
The books today are mostly sec-
ond-hand, and sold by weight for
1,000 ISK per kilogramme. The
selection spans everything from
nature to medicine to competitive
swimming, and from Icelandic-
language textbooks to Bridget
Jones—and two copies of the David
Beckham autobiography. “One of
them is in Icelandic,” says Eyþór.
“It’s probably the only book I have
in two languages.”
There’s also a selection of new
editions, including the Halldór
Laxness classic ‘World Light’ and
Jón Kalman’s ‘Heaven and Hell.’
“Many of them are connected to
Flateyri,” says Eyþór. “For example,
‘World Light’ is about a guy who
was born in Flateyri, and spent
his first year being raised here.
And then of course ‘Independent
People’. And then ‘I Remember
You’—one character in that book
lives in Flateyri as well. And then
Jón Kalman—just because I love
this book. It takes place in a small
fishing village 100 years ago. When
I read it, I can easily place it in this
town.”
There are also some photo books
made by Eyþór himself, and others
by his friends and associates. It’s
an eccentric selection, but one gets
the feeling that in this particular
store, that’s the continuation of a
great tradition.
Walk-in time capsule
The store also acts as a time cap-
sule—both figurative and literal.
Visitors can write messages and
post them to future Flateyri resi-
dents who’ll read them in 100
years. Across the hallway lies the
perfectly preserved apartment
of the store’s founders—Eyþór’s
great-grandparents—who moved
there in 1915. It’s a treasure trove of
old photographs and decorations,
a box of bookbinding tools, and
fascinating period furniture and
accoutrements.
“Absolutely nothing has been
cha n ge d si nce t hey
passed away,” says Eyþór.
“My great-grandfather
passed away in 1950, and
my great-grandmother
in 1983—and this house
is just how it was that
day. Museums have re-
constructed homes in
the way they think peo-
ple lived—but this apart-
ment is how it was.”
As I step back
out into the street, and
the new millennium,
somet h i ng tel l s me
Eyþór’s forebears would be proud
that he’s still keeping the lights on
at The Old Bookstore.
Travel Distance from Reykjavík: 470 km How to get there: Routes One North then Routes 60 & 61Further information: flateyribookstore.com
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