Article contributed by Johanna H
At @wildlandpages you get to follow 28-year-old Iina. She is originally from Finland but has been living in the UK for the past few years. Iina is a huge language nerd and has studied four languages in school and a few more since then too and she is on the lookout for her next language to learn! She is a big coffee drinker; did you know that Finland is the country where they drink most coffee per capita in the world? But living in the UK has also made her really love Earl Grey tea. Iina not only love books, coffee, tea, dogs, and plants, but she also loves stamps. She inherited her grandmother’s stamp collection and to this day keeps any fun-looking stamps that comes her way.
We love your feed! Great photos with loads of books, coffee, plants and a cute dog. As a plant lover, which plant would you say is your favourite?
Thank you so much, that’s so kind! I try to lure my flatmate’s cute dog Chili into my photos whenever possible. I’m afraid I can’t choose a favourite plant though! I really love all my cute succulents and cacti since I actually manage to keep them alive, but recently also got into more leafy plants such as the Monstera plant, they look really majestic.
Why did you start your book Instagram?
I had been following a few bookstagrammers on my personal feed, and really loved the friendly vibe bookstagram seemed to have. I finally decided to make the jump in January 2018 when I felt like I needed a new hobby. I’ve always been a very visual person so bookstagram felt like a natural home for me, and it’s been great to chat about books with like-minded people and find new recommendations almost daily on my feed.
Which types of books are you usually drawn to?
I love books that have interesting characters and that can teach me something about history, a new culture, or anything under the sun, really – many of my favourites have been quite unexpected! According to my reading stats, most of my reads are contemporary fiction and I do love that, but also like dipping into nonfiction, cosy crime like Agatha Christie, and fantasy at times as well, as well as any book with a really beautiful cover… A very small niche I love are books inspired by Russian folklore, such as Deathless by Catherynne Valente and Katherine Arden’s Winternight trilogy.
When you aren’t reading, what do you spend your time doing?
I love to knit and have really embraced this during this pandemic, making several jumpers and pairs of socks! I also love going on long walks and the occasional TV binge, of course.
Are there any book or books that you are looking forward to reading in 2021?
Of new books, I’m really excited to read Sistersong by Lucy Holland. My main ambition is to read the books I have collected along the years as I have almost too many unread ones on my shelves… Of those, I’m really looking forward to The Overstory by Richard Powers, Pajtim Statovci’s Bolla, and Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood.
If you could grab a coffee with any author, dead or alive, who would it be?
Oh, this is such a tough question! I will cheat and pick one of each: for the dead ones, I would love to meet Tove Jansson and be inspired by her creativity. For the ones still alive… I will go for Jackie Kay, as I would love to tell her how much I’ve loved her poetry and chat more about writing with her.
