Weekend Stubble

British papers, like their American counterparts, have spent the last week disappearing up their own posteriors with end-of-the-year lists. (Incidentally, has anyone pointed out that end-of-the-year lists are an easy way for papers to run allegedly bookish content without actually having to pay for reviewers? Just wondering.)

In the spirit of contrariness, I hereby elect the one book that I am certain will not be on anyone else's year-end list: Singing in Finnish. The aim of this book," reports Anni Haataja in the Finnish online magazine 6 Degrees, "Is to teach Non-Finns to pronounce Finnish well enough to be able to sing Finnish."

Still, it might be a little confusing:

For example, the literal translation of the lyrics ‘pai, pai paitaressu, tukku tuutussa tupukka’ goes ‘swad- swad- swaddled-baby, bundle in-cradle precious-one’ and the more understandable literary translation is ‘bye, bye, my sweet swaddled baby, rocking in the basket’,” explains [author] Holman.

Hey, wouldn't it be funny if this guy was just making stuff up for foreigners and claiming it was Finnish? And everyone in Finland was playing along?