Thread by @krudell

I was helping someone look for a portable air conditioner and I came across this photo and it disturbed me.

First, yes, that’s a lot of lower leg. It’s really more of an advertisement for shins and feet.

But what’s happening in this scene? Is it hot outside, so this couple is relaxing in the cool indoors, thanks to their portable air conditioner, enjoying a scalding cup of coffee and...reading a book together? The way couples do?

Also what book are they reading? This book:

That’s “Hypothermia,” by acclaimed Icelandic crime fiction writer Arnaldur Indridason, and it’s from his Inspector Erlendur series. This one is about how Erlendur has spent his career evading the phantoms of his past, and now he finds himself twice haunted―first, at a séance...

...attended by the victim of a suspicious suicide, and again by the puzzle of two young people who went missing thirty years ago. There's also the ghost of the detective's disastrous marriage―which, despite the pleas of his...

...drug-addled daughter, Erlendur refuses to confront. And there's his lingering obsession with the case of his beloved younger brother, who...

...vanished without a trace when they were boys. Erlendur can run from his ghosts for only so long, and when they finally catch up with him, he is forced to face the devastating truth of his tormented past.

WHY THE F*CK ARE THEY READING THIS BOOK?! ALSO WHY ARE THEY READING IT IN THE ORGINAL ICELANDIC?!

Wait, are they in Reykjavik? Is the portable air conditioner market for Honeywell particularly robust there? Why are his sweatpants pushed up to his knees?

Can she not read? Is she blind? Or do they like reading together and playing the different characters? “I’ll be Erlendur, sweetheart. And you can be the drug-addled daughter.” “Fun! But first can you maybe put some socks on your big hobbit feet?”

And does the lamp need to be on?

Anyway, if anyone has any portable air conditioner recommendations I’ll pass them along thx.