I would listen to something on the radio and try to tap out the melody, then the harmonies.
The pace of Swedish crime fiction is slower - Stieg Larsson's the exception. And I think we use the environment more.
My parents had us very young. We lived in a modest house. We built forts, we hiked, we went camping and they wanted us to be independent. It's how children grew up in the 1940s and 50s: outside all the time, playing in the dirt, riding your bike around.