Here is how Ugandans are joining hands to read books on the cheap

Last week’s column on books and reading got several people to email me their thoughts, worries, questions, and recommendations. A number were noteworthy enough that I have chosen to respond generally to the issues raised.

After appreciating my efforts, John, who I suspect is a senior citizen, dispensed this piece of advice: “However, I wish you could now read holy books and appreciate God’s inspired thoughts and begin to listen to what heaven is saying. Then, expressions like self-realisation and God realisation will not puzzle you anymore. Now read Bible, Gospel of John chapter 6 verse 63.”

I am not sure I was puzzled by anything I wrote. No matter, I checked out the said verse in the New International Version online, and it reads: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.”

Jesus was responding to some unease amongst his disciples to the preaching he had delivered in Capernaum. The teaching the disciples were questioning is the now famous, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life...” (John 6:54).
I am curious as to why John (my correspondent, not the disciple) did not add 6:64, which says: “Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” This was, of course, in reference to the disciples, but could well apply to yours truly.

That said, I will need to revisit the Bible and comb it for its literary value more than anything else, least of all to learn “what heaven is saying”. I started on the Koran but I didn’t go far before I got distracted. A return is overdue. And I long promised myself to explore the Talmud. John, the correspondent, did well to instruct me to “read holy books”.
Holy books are sure far better and far superior to self-help books, the first and last of which I have read is Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I find it more useful to read biographies and autobiographies of highly effective people, plus the histories of the things they were renowned for.

It is a circuitous route, but a more enlightening one for me. To reduce complex and nuanced matters into commands is good for the bank balance of the one who issues the commands, not so for many others looking for answers to evolving and often confusing matters of life. The Bible did a good job with the Ten Commandments. Let’s leave it at that.

I say all this while also being a supporter of reading everything one can find. That, however, has a small proviso: which is that if you are starting out, read everything. Over time you gravitate more toward some subjects and genres.
That is close to what I told James, a recent graduate of pharmacy. He asked me to recommend books related to his medical background and also books on leadership, social freedoms and justice. Worthwhile subjects, but I don’t think he should be closing his mind on other areas this early.

James and another young correspondent (he described himself as such), Francis, raised the serious matter of cost of books. They like to read, but books are too pricey for them. I suggested they go on a prowl on the internet for cheap or free reads. They should, in particular, join BOOK CLUB 256, a Facebook group dedicated to “bringing back the reading culture. Connect, interact and meet Ugandans who love books and can’t get enough of exploring new genres and authors”.

I am a newer member. Although I dwell in kamooli, I love what the group members do. They review books they have read, they even share some of the books and one can download and read. The price is the bundles one needs to download. Kiwedde. The group appears heavy on fiction, but that is neither here nor there.

Francis and Geoffrey said they read books, but rarely do they complete them. This comes with the territory, although Geoffrey cynically attributes his failure to being a typically Ugandan thing. Some books are simply “unfinishable” because they are lousy. It is entirely another matter when one is a serial “partial reader”. This weakness denies one appreciation of the entirety of a story or of an argument.

Let me, however, complicate matters. I have said I don’t like to recommend books, but for purposes of this column, one may want to read a copy of the book titled How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by the Frenchman Pierre Bayard.

If some people can’t read a book cover-to-cover, some who can sometimes simply fail to pick up a book and read it. Call it reader’s block. Ian, a journalist, said he had “not read a single book in a year”. He sounded pained. He may need correspondent John’s inspiration: “That word dwells in us, and we ultimately dwell in that word, ultimately we merge into it.”
Reading is a beautiful world.

Bernard Tabaire is a media trainer and commentator on public affairs based in Kampala.
[email protected] Twitter:@btabaire