Newspapers and Pauw push the thirst for reading

ITHINK it is safe to say that I hit the button with last week’s article on prostate cancer. My reader base has now increased to three. I have written a double column for this week. I hope to increase my reader base even further. The first issue is the perennial one of reading. With improved technology, one hardly sees children with books in their hands. The libraries are sparsely attended.

What can we as adults do? We can be seen to be readers, we can read to our children and we can eventually read with our children. This is the natural progression.

If the child does not take to a book, use the original resources provided by the daily newspaper.

Making a child into a reader does not happen overnight. Nor does it last if not pursued assiduously. The child progresses to a reader, a puzzler, and eventually a commentator and researcher. Newspapers are invaluable. But we don’t have the time, I hear you say. Oh yes you do. You make time. My advice to you is simple. Of the two books you read, make one a re-read. There are advantages.

One: the territory is familiar and you can skim-read.

Two: you can linger over memorable passages because you already know the story.

Three: you can point out to your children how the book influenced the things you say to them or the ways in which you express yourself.

Subliminally the child is taught the intrinsic value of reading a book.

Also, a book doesn’t have a battery that needs to be recharged. It doesn’t require money for “air-time” or “data”.

The second part of my column concerns, ironically, a book that became available via the electronic media.

It is by Jacques Pauw. As a writer’s piece, I compliment him on his skill, his ability to tell a story and to sustain interest. He is, by self-confession, a retired investigative journalist and his CV is mightily impressive. What bothers me is his authorial agenda. He has published a book filled with fillips of corruption, double-dealing and blatant bastardy that is so common that our senses are stultified.

We are looking for good news. We are told to read the 368 pages on our tablets, but we are strongly exhorted to buy the book. Is Bra Pauw writing with his thumb on the scale? Is he hoping to restart an over-due and regularly overlooked process of restitution?

And who is going to fund the massive legal costs that will follow as reaction from the den of miscreants he names and shames. This John le Carré clone of a novel is going to hurt. Watch this space.