Read a Book, Love a Book and Lead the World

One of my earliest memories was of my mom calling me into the midst of a group of eight or nine adults, some of whom I was familiar with and handing me a copy of The Leader Newspaper which I suspect was more than two weeks old, she pointed to a particular heading and said “read.” In my little mind, I suspected what she was doing and I was eager to show off too.

 So, I started reading, reading line to line probably slowly, trying hard to pronounce the new and long words, pausing at the commas and full stop knowing I was doing a good job. I could feel the gaze and smiles of the adults around me as I prattled off. At the end of the paragraph, I looked up and of course saw what I expected to see, the applause and shouts of encouragement mixed with wonder at the little book smart girl. I was six years old and in Primary one.

This in itself was not a feat especially with today’s standards as some children start pronouncing their first words as early as seven months old but then especially from the environment I came from, it was somewhat of a rare event. This experience further gave me a hunger to show off and to do that indeed to read more books.

From reading to just impress, I started loving books, I learned to experience the world and other cultures through books, I developed a desire for reading so strong that I couldn’t function normally if I hadn’t read for the day, doesn’t matter if it was a newspaper, a storybook, a textbook or the bible (yes I read the entire bible as a storybook). There was a constant supply of books in the house as my dad kept providing to the extent I had a mini-library of sorts in the house.

In our part of the world especially among low-income earners, books are seen as a chore, something you have to study to pass exams. Picking up a book is mainly to achieve a purpose and rarely for the sake of reading. Reading can be for the sake of education, information and of course enjoyment. Most people read for exams in order to pass and that can, in the real sense, be called studying. It is a chore, you task your brain, you inseminate only to disseminate and when you are done, retain little or nothing of what was studied.

Reading for information is not as rigorous as studying as there is room for engagement and relaxation, this is mostly experienced when you are browsing the day’s newspaper headlines, reading your motivational quotes and bible verses for the day, reading up on your favourite sports magazine as long as you have a reason to and on the information you want to extract. To pick up a book and read based on the sole purpose of reading, reading for leisure and enjoyment, reading as a hobby ,there lies the rub.

The act of picking up a book just to discover what it contains, to turn the first page and quickly get lost as your eyes dart across the pages, explaining, revering and discovering. I once finished a 500 pages small printed novel in 48 hours. I couldn’t drop the book till I turned the last page and I suspect if I hadn’t had to do chores or eat or hadn’t been hindered by darkness and lack of electricity, I would have finished it in much lesser time.

Reading especially for leisure can never be overemphasized. In the words of Barack Obama “Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible.” So many times, I discuss a topic or show knowledge concerning topics so different from what I studied and people ask me how do you know that and I don’t know what to answer other than “Guess I read a lot”.

Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible

-Barack Obama

I remember discussing psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud with someone and he asked me how do you know about the unconscious and Dream theory, I told him I read a novel “The Chosen” by Chaim Potok which is about a young Jewish boy Danny Saunders who wanted to study Psychoanalysis but his father wanted him to replace him as the Tzaddik of their Synagogue. The book also contained some information about the Jewish religion and the Holocaust.   

Reading as a habit or for enjoyment helps you to acquire unconscious knowledge, the form of knowledge you gain just by being exposed to something and not by any real desire or effort on your part to acquire it. You retain a lot of information from reading books at leisure as your brain is not under stress, you simply go with the flow.

Pick up a book today, go with your areas of interest, the authors you are familiar with. One way to do this is to look for the literature books you studied while in primary or secondary school, stories you enjoyed. I remember a book we read in my primary school then “Hassan and The Car Thieves” by Prof. Jasper Onuekwusi. I enjoyed this book and author so much and imagine my surprise and delight on entering the university one of my English Teachers turned out to be this man.

If you enjoy politics, read the autobiography of the head of states and men in power. If you find horror to your liking, pick a book in that genre or you find interior decoration more to your taste, there are novels and storybooks for that. Start with short stories or 50-page books. As you read, you sharpen your intellect, increase your knowledge, reduce your stress, explore other experiences beyond your scope and environment and of course make yourself a valuable member of society by changing the world one book at a time.