Last year, I traveled to Iceland for the first time. When we landed in Reykjavik , I did the thing I always do when I arrive in a new place: check out the bookstores. For a compact city with a population just shy of 140,000, Reykjavik has a large and flourishing literary culture. It was designated a UNESCO City of Literature in 2011, and has an annual literary festival that attracts internationally renowned writers like Anne Carson, Hernan Diaz, and Claire Keegan. On my first day, I visited two superb independent bookshops and one larger chain store, all within a few blocks of one another. Beyond the capital, even some of the small, remote towns lining the coast are equipped with good shops. One of the reasons this island country needs so many places to buy books is the annual year-end tradition of Jólabókaflóð—literally, "Christmas book flood"—when friends and family exchange books and read them (often with hot chocolate) on Christmas Eve. Skálda bookshop in Reykjavik.…