These are excerpts from Lagom, The Very Unofficial Guide to the Swedes,
the book that explains who the Swedes are and what Sweden is like.
It starts at A and goes on until Z and beyond.
Beyond?? Well, you see, the Swedish alphabet has 28 letters.

ABBA
Absolut
Addressing people
Advent
Allemansrätten
Allotment System, the
Allsång på Skansen

Allt för Sverige

In the television show “Allt för Sverige”, ten Americans with Swedish origin are selected to take part in a trip around the country and also have a silly competition. In this game they are eliminated one by one each week. The show contains information about the country and the Americans are also presented with strange facts (like in this book). Two examples are: Swedes don´t talk to their neighbours and are also subject to Murphy´s Law. Who would believe this?

In one episode the Americans were surprised that people in a street in Älvsbyn, in the province of Norrbotten in the North, were not keen to answer their questions. Why? A possible answer:

1) Swedes are not always confident when it comes to speaking English. 2) They thought the attackers were trying to sell mobile/cell phone contracts or something like that. Remember, English is another language. All in all, this is silly but excellent television.

In the end of the last episode, the winner gets to meet a great number of his or her Swedish relatives. It is a heartbreaking programme with tears, laughter and strong feelings and people discovering new sides of their personas.

When interviewed, the contestants express their desire to stay in the land of their ancestors for good, and others want to keep coming back for visits. Despite our differences, the two nations prove that we are unified in so many aspects of life.

Allsång på Skansen
Allt för Sverige
Anglo-Saxon phenomena

Animal life
350,000 moose are reduced in number by 100,000 annually when the hunting season happens in autumn (fall).
More than 350 wolves roam around the forests killing animals. They are protected by law, but are still hated by local sheep farmers and Sami reindeer owners.
Approximately 3,000 bears attempt to stay away from mankind in the large forests of Central and Northern Sweden.
An estimated 1,000 lynx try to be invisible to the human eye but are said to exist.
There are plenty of deer, fowl and smaller life forms in the country. The most feared one is the tick, which causes infections and suffering. It could be described as the most dangerous living creature, ahead of wolves and snakes (vipers and grass snakes).