Brita, 87: “I look forward to him arriving with the box of books”

Every month, Brita Hedlund waits for a white box filled with library books. At 87, she spends much of her time reading, keeping a handwritten list of titles and rating each book on a ten-point scale.

“What else would I do? When you are my age, there are very few friends left,” she says from her apartment in Stockholm’s Södermalm district. Her wrists weakened after earlier fractures, so she cannot carry heavy loads. Once a month, library assistant Marek Wolk brings her books from Stockholm City Library.

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What else would I do? When you are my age, there are very few friends left.

Hedlund’s list includes mysteries, novels and books about history. Some receive a simple “no!” after she reads them. Each month, librarian Eva Eriksson calls to review the list and prepare the next delivery. She serves about 30 borrowers across Stockholm, some of whom read at extraordinary speed.

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They do not feel well if they do not get 20 novels right now.

“They do not feel well if they do not get 20 novels right now,” Eriksson says. The service, called “The Book Comes,” began in Sweden in the 1950s and is available to people who cannot visit a library, whether temporarily or for a longer period.

For Eriksson, the visits and calls offer something different from contact with home-care or health-care workers. “Talking about books can make you feel more content. You get to be a person and not just someone who needs to be cared for,” she says. The work can also become emotional. Some borrowers die only days after arranging their next delivery, Eriksson says. Wolk continues loading personalized boxes into a silver-gray van and taking them to readers across southern Stockholm.

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Talking about books can make you feel more content. You get to be a person and not just someone who needs to be cared for.