A country where politicians who promised hope are dishing out assorted nightmares by the day. They promised housing but are throwing millions into homelessness. They promised heaven but are showing citizens the Hell gates by their actions. As a way of escape from these frightening nightmares, I decided to bury myself deep in the pages of books for my flight of fancy for as long as I could afford to buy a few new ones or rummage through the forest of unread ones on my bookshelves
Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written – Mark Twain
I LIVE my life by the day walking through it and hoping and praying to God to crown my little efforts. As a matter of rule which has been with me from my younger days, I don’t make New Year resolutions. Many of my contemporaries used to keep a diary in which they listed resolutions. I don’t because I discovered that early that it was all a charade.
At the beginning of every year, I just pray for good health and time to live and please God. Then create the time to devote myself to reading and writing to keep my mind alive and sharp because these two are the best ways to keep one’s sanity in a country like Nigeria where everything seems not to fall in sync with reality or expectations.
A country where politicians who promised hope are dishing out assorted nightmares by the day. They promised housing but are throwing millions into homelessness. They promised heaven but are showing citizens the Hell gates by their actions.
As a way of escape from these frightening nightmares, I decided to bury myself deep in the pages of books for my flight of fancy for as long as I could afford to buy a few new ones or rummage through the forest of unread ones on my bookshelves.
I also don’t make it a duty to list the books I have read in the year. I once tried it but fell by the wayside by the second or third month of the year. This was because, at so many points in the year, my reading speed became dizzying while at another it became so slow that I wondered if I was the same person who read so much and now is reading so little.
THE year 2023 started on a very good note because I was able to read very good and interesting books. My reading was eclectic. What I read sometimes depended on my impulse and mood. I have so many unread books not because I don’t read but because the speed at which I buy books is perhaps faster than the time I have to read them. However, I’ve learned a lesson: buy books that catch your fancy and keep them on your bookshelf even if you don’t have the time to read them yet. Why? At the time you may want to read it, it may not be available at the bookshop.
It is with this in mind that I am going to write only about five of the many books I read this year. And by chance, they are all nonfiction, they all fall in the genre of memoirs and autobiographies. The reason for this is simple: memoirs, biographies, or autobiographies are powerful weapons of education.
Of the five books that made the list is Dare Oluwatuyi’s The Fine Art of Bookselling: Reflections of Nigeria’s book Industry Stakeholders. The author through this book tells the story of the book industry in Nigeria in a very captive and engrossing manner that gives the reader deep knowledge about the industry and its trials and triumphs. I had the honour of being the reviewer on the day it was publicly presented and in my review which was widely published, I said, “Michael Oluwadare Oluwatuyi has in this book demonstrated incisively that his sojourn in this eco territory of books in the last three or so decades has not been a waste. The book is a rich sociological and anthropological study of the book world in our country and the continent with a vignette of the world in general. He has done a good job and this has been justified by its packaging, printing, and delivery.” Published by CSS Bookshops, one of the country’s earliest and long enduring book outlets. It is one of the best books I read in 2023.
Next is Olabisi Ajala’s An African Abroad published by the new wave publishing sensation in the country, Masobe Books. It is not a new book as such. It was first published in 1963! It is the story of one of Nigeria’s most traveled journalists of the seventies about his daring adventures around the world. The stories contained there are hair-raising and engrossing. In reviewing it I wrote, “An African Abroad is a testament to the fact that good books are forever. First published 60 years ago, it still reads fresh and true. The writer and linguist Kola Olatunbosun as well as Masobe Books which agreed to republish have no doubt done a good job of rekindling the memory of those who have heard about the writer or were familiar with his name and writings in the 70s and 80s. It is also a good introduction to those who have not or do not know the origin of why some people are referred to as ‘Ajala Travel’.”
Next is Chief Olusegun Osoba’s memoir titled Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics (2018) published by Diamond Publications Limited. Chief Osoba through this book chronicled his life as a journalist and later as a politician. It captures his travails and triumph in the two fields of human endeavour. As a journalist who loves stories and likes to learn from the feet of the masters, I state categorically that he did a very fantastic job in documenting his journey. The story about how he headed to Ilorin and how he came to Ibadan to lead the teams at The Herald and Sketch Newspapers is fascinating. Not the less so was his rise to the editorship of the Daily Times.
His story and exploits are the stuff real journalism is made of. It is a book I strongly recommend for any journalist practising today. It should be a manual for every journalist worth his/her salt.
The one that carries the year and defines my reading pleasure for the year is no other than Peter Enahoro’s Then Spoke the Thunder (Mosuro Publishers, 2014). The writer himself died on April 24, 2023, in London. I wrote a tribute in his honour for The Conversation.
In this tome of 744 pages, Enahoro tells his story in the epigrammatic style and language that he used to capture the world in his journalistic days. The beginning might be tedious for a reader who doesn’t want to be bothered by the writer’s genealogy, but surviving those pages opens the doors to sheer pleasurable reading and a slice of the history of coups and counter-coups in Nigeria and Africa as a continent.
The book is a sure treasure trove of history and an opportunity for the writer to dig deeper into issues he had reported on in the course of his career that span continents. In the book, Enahoro gives a damning verdict on many Nigerian and African leaders. Some of his verdicts one may not agree with but the picture he paints of those who had at one time or the other presided over the affairs of the continent is worth considering.
The other memoir that I read that also flavoured my reading was Robert Gottlieb’s Avid Reader. He was an American book editor whose life was all about books, reading, and editing. These five memoirs among many others (fiction, drama, poetry etc.), I read in 2023 defined the pleasure and excitement the year held for me as I look forward to a greater and more fun-filled 2024 sans the politics of deceit and propaganda that is rife now.
Enjoy a blissful reading in 2024.
