"Nkem, na you oh" said my friend Ada when she saw me reading a novel
not in our list of novels to read. It is usually astounding when people
say that and more astounding it is when spoken by English students. All
my life the idea I have always had about English students is people who
love to read, they read voraciously like they don't have enough time to
read all the books available, but not the ones I know. Sometimes when in
a gathering with my classmates and I want to ask someone a question
about a book I just read or I'm reading. I freeze and shake my head cos I
could bet my very last Naira, not one of them would even know what the
back of the book looks like or who the author is. One day a member of my
class saw me reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie and
asked me if it was "Half of a Yellow Sun and other stories" cos she
could not phantom how a person could read a book that large containing
only one story.
Then it is more embarrassing when a lecturer comes
to class and asks who has read this book and all around its just blank
faces. My first question "why don't they like books?" Is it
psychological or just pathological laziness? When you pick any book to
read you are not just travelling far far away into the world of the
book, you are learning new things, strangely getting more experiences
and the best part; it is way cheaper than going to the movies and much
more interesting. My mother says, "If an author writes a book on a
thirty year experience, a person that read it in one week would have
learnt what it took another person thirty years"
Now
this strange phenomena of people not liking to read is not only in the
persona of English students but in the every 10 people 8 don't read. It
is only a foolish, shallow person that says I don't like reading. Then
how the fuck do you learn!!!! Half of the things you are taught in
school is not enough for you to go ahead in life, books tell you about
the experiences you never want to really have, they open and broaden the
mind-set of an individual. Then some people would wonder why the
promotion that is due didn't come through or when the company was
downsizing they were cut off, maybe if you read more you would have
grown more intelligible.
Now note the reading am talking about is
not your notes that are given in class (read those to pass exams not
life trails) and not books like Harlequin or Silhouette, I have read
those they, lack content and are full of teachings on how to have sex,
read books that will teach you satire, lifestyles of the Red-Indians,
the history of Herbert Macaulay, and things people think are irrelevant,
just read such things and when you speak, people will look at you in
awe and wonder what school you went to. They wouldn't know you studied
in a book.
The year is coming to an end why don't you pick a book
any book and just read. Please join in the movement against the vast
amount of stupidity in the world. Just read.
@nkemoyaghire