Books they read: Dr Florence Baingana

Dr Florence Baingana is a psychiatrist and Wellcome Trust Research Fellow with the Personal Social Services Unit of the London School of Economics/Makerere University School of Public Health. She is also a member of the Finance Committee of the World Psychiatric Association, is a Member of the Advisory Committee of the Children and War Foundation, Board Chair Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation (TPO)-Uganda and is an Editor for Interventions.

How did you fall in love with books?
My father, the late Dr Neri Baingana, was an avid reader. We had lots of his books in the house, such as those by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. However, I also got bored very easily and found that reading often took me off into another more exciting world and this would often help the time fly by. My late sister, Dr Gladys Baingana, also loved to read and she spent her money on books. I can remember reading all her copies of Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven and Famous Five.

What kind of books do you have in your shelf and why?
I have all kinds of books. I still love mysteries and thrillers, such as the Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. I also love biographies; I have Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, The Mustard Seed by Yoweri Museveni, Dreams of My Father by Barrack Obama, the biographies of the moderator of Weakest Link, Anne Robinson, as well as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salvador Dali, and Victor Hugo. Biographies tell me about the lives of other people. I then find out they are human too, often with the same weakness that I think I alone have. I like foreign books, as defined by the US or UK, so I have Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Salman Rushdie, Ben Okri, and of course Doreen Baingana’s Tropical Fish. I also have books by South American writers, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the earlier books by Amy Tan, such as The Kitchen God’s Wife. The foreign writers open windows into other lives and other ways of being. In an instant, I can get into India, South Africa, or China, or West Africa, or South America. It fascinates me that we are different, but also very similar in so many ways.

Which books have you struggled to read but glad you completed?
The book that I am reading right now, Passages by Gail Sheehy, is a slow read, but I am almost finished. The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was also a slow read but really enjoyable.

Which books made you sad but you can read again?
The Russian classics make me very sad, but I can read them again as they always have something new to offer. They have such a good understanding of the human soul, books such as Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I just completed The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn for the second time.

What kind of books do you give to people as presents? Why these books?
For young people and children, I give fun books that can stimulate their love of reading. For older people, I try to imagine what sort of book they would like to read, whether they like to read at all, and their interests. My mother for instance likes the Alexander McCall Smith books. I try to get people books that I know they would love. Reading should always be a pleasure.

Which books have you read several times?
I am trying to read again books such as Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel, and others that were essential reading back in high school. I want to see if I can get the message out, if it is still relevant today. I am also going back to the classics, such as Solzhenitsyn, Shakespeare, and Charles Dickens.

Which writers have had a great impact in your life?
By far, probably the Russian classics, as well as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Amy Tan, but almost each book has something for me to take away. However, most biographies as well have so much to tell about people. There is something to learn from each person’s life.

Do you have some weird habits with your books or reading?
Not really, I may become incommunicado for a day or two if I get into a really good book, stay in bed reading from morning to night, but I do not take that as being weird.

Which are some of the books that you think you must read? Why?
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, it is the longest running show in London. I have not watched the show, but the book is supposed to be really powerful. Karl Marx’s Capital, is a book that has influenced a lot of African politicians, I would want to understand why.

Which books are you reading?
I am reading Passages by Gail Sheehy. It is an old book, published in the 1970s, but still very powerful. I am also reading The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, as well as Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh. The latter two are books that one reads slowly, then meditate on, not read like a novel.

Beatrice Lamwaka