Five books for readers

Nothing can be more difficult than being in the company of non-readers. Nonreaders just tolerate you and your baggage of books which you carry wherever you go. Having recently been on vacation and spent hours and hours in bookshops, I find that those with this peculiar disease are a community of their own. I decided that it is fitting to dedicate this column to the reading community worldwide. I would like to quote from one of the books to be cited in this week’s edition. Anthonia Fraser’s The Pleasures of Reading. I am quoting from the contribution of one of my favourite writers-Sue Townsend “Most adults took my passion for books as a sign of derangement. Reading became a secret obsession. I went nowhere without a book; the lavatory, bus journey, walking to school… I read my tattered copies of P.G Wodehouse and laughed like a drain in the middle of the night… more evidence of my derangement according to my family”. I identify completely with Sue Townsend. When I was younger my mum used to pull me out of the convenience because I stayed longer because I was reading. In salute to readers therefore whose only obsession is books and more books and which has made them so deeply knowledgeable, I present this week’s collection on the pleasures of reading.

1) The Unknown Unknown-Bookshops and the delight of not getting what you wanted by Mark Forsyth:

This is a slim volume that celebrates the innards of bookshops. It suggests and proves that an unknown book which you did not plan for, is the best reward in a bookshop. That book you have never heard of which you stumbled into while roaming around the bookshop is the ultimate joy of any book reader. In writing this book, Forsyth quoted the former American Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld “There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know”. I love this book because it also delves into bibliomancy which is prophecy through books. In other words, finding God in random things. It is also an activity, to open a book on any page and find in there a sentence that refers to something you are currently doing. This is an incredible book for a keen reader.

2) Reading Like a Writer-A guide for people who love books and those who want to write them by Francine Prose:

I ran into this book by accident in a bookshop and its title caught my eye. A New York Times bestseller, the author invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters to discover why their work endured. Written with passion, humour, and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart - to take pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; among others. She looks to John Le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue and to Flannery O’Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail. And, most important, Prose cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which all literature is crafted.

3) Any book by Nadine Gordimer South African literary legend and Nobel laureate for literature whose books and short stories continue to resonate. Any book by Nadine Gordimer is critical to any lover of books particularly her short stories. Heaven.

4) The pleasures of reading by Antonia Fraser:

I recommend this book for two reasons-first published in 1992, this 2015 edition makes a comeback in aid of give-a-book; a British NGO which gives books out free to prisons, schools and organisation, especially where books cannot reach and where people cannot afford. 43 writers contributed to this book. The proceeds realised will be given to give-abook foundation. All 43 writers gave their initial stories of falling in love with the written word and also give us their favourite books and tell us how they actually started to read. It is difficult to find a favourite among the 43 which includes our own Buchi Emecheta. The Pleasures of reading is such a gorgeous book that reminds every obsessive reader of those times when eyebrows were raised as you read a book in the middle of a boring family meeting, while waiting to have your baby or scrambling through dog eared magazines in the waiting room of your dentist. To show you how exciting this book is, I shall leave you with a couple of quotes.

“Reading for me is tied inextricably to place. The Victorian Gothic house-a ‘monstrosity’ to some, a ‘folly’ to others, to all a decidedly odd place for a person to spend their formative years-cast its long shadow over the pages of the books I read. For years no book I read came from anywhere but the bowels and lungs-and in some cases the twisted attics-of the Big House that crouched at the end of a valley…“-Emma Tennant.

“When I was little I read everything that had letters on it, just for the pleasure of decoding them. ‘What does it say?’ I would ask, peering over the edge of the breakfast table at the Weeties packet. When no one answered I set about finding out. When I had had my fill of reading about riboflavin and niacin, I set about deciphering the bit of my father’s newspaper that drooped over the marmalade pot, so that I can still read upsidedown almost as fast as right-way-up.“-Germaine Greer

“When I was a child, reading was never a major activity in my part of Nigeria. Storytelling was. From the time you are in your mother’s belly, you have your own song, your own story. Some Ibo midwives actually sing you praises as you glide from your mother’s womb. I belong to this culture.”

“Reading is a habit. Once it is formed in childhood, it can be very advantageous in life.”-Buchi Emecheta

“SAHIB. Latest from Plato. The republic. Also, James Hadley Chase and P. G. Wodehouse. You want Catcher in the Rey, sahib? MAD magazine? but sahib, just now unpacked . At least Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens.’ To me, that is what it meant to learn to read in India. Having the pleasure of reading shouted at you by pavement booksellers before you even learnt how to read.”-Gita Mehta

5) The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction

Written by Alan Jacobs, this is a book that debunks the concerns of cultural commentators that Americans are no longer reading. He argues that contrary to doomsayers reading is alive and well in America. He adds that there are millions of devoted readers supporting hundreds of enormous bookstores and online booksellers. Oprah’s book club is highly influential and a recent survey reveals an uptick in the reading of literary fiction. Invitingly written, with equal measures of wit and erudition, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction will appeal to all readers, whether they be novices looking for direction or old hands seeking to recapture the pleasures of reading.