If you love reading, a home library is not a bad idea
The right book shelf may have to go with the right place in the house; for many people that love their words, reading is an experience, some will do it in a special chair and will go as far as creating the right atmosphere. PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK
There is that common saying about Ugandans not reading.
They say, to hide things from Ugandans, just put them in a book, they will not bother checking. Yet, over the years, the social scene says a different story; from the excitement created in 2014 when journalist Daniel Kalinaki released his Kiiza Besigye and Uganda’s Unfinished Revolution.
The book was reviewed by the press and basically all our literacy bloggers, then came the festivals, the literacy ones it was a hot cake, in one of them, a chapter was adapted as a stage play.
Generally, looking at all these events organized around literature, the saying that Ugandans don’t read is probably too harsh.
Some Ugandans have home libraries and with good book vendors such as Turn the Page Africa, it is easier to land that Jane Makumbi, Then Manchester Happened than it was to get her Kintu when it landed a few years back.
But how does one go about building their home library?
This includes those that are starting small, with limited space and few book volumes.
Get the right book shelf
One may wonder whether there is a right or wrong book shelf that’s totally according to volumes and probably the space availed to you.
In a small house for instance, you may not have the luxury of a large space to install a floor to ceiling book shelf, a simple one that can be placed in one of the corners may be ideal.
The right book shelf may have to go with the right place in the house; for many people that love their words, reading is an experience, some will do it in a special chair and will go as far as creating the right atmosphere.
Some of these people don’t read a single book at a time, they could be at three or more books ago but only choose which one to read basing on how they feel at a particular time.
If you’re that kind of reader, having your small or big library near where you read from is important, that means you won’t have to walk from one room to the next to dump Half of a Yellow Sun since you feel like picking up The Headline That Morning.
If your room is small and all the good corners are taken, the space above could still do the job – yes those fit on walls. With a good carpenter at your disposal, the book shelfs could even be fused into the house décor.
But since books can get too heavy, shelves installed on walls can’t handle very many books.
Organise your library
One of the most important things in getting a library together is the arrangement. It is not just a matter of pilling books together in a room or wooden shelf.
For instance, for any person consuming Ugandan literature, you would know that some of the exciting Ugandan books are a collection of stories by different writers.
These could be story collections or poetry anthologies that one picks anytime they feel like reading or re-reading something; while organizing your home library, it would be vital to place such books together for easy access when needed, others though arrange according to alphabets or genres, it works either way.
It is also important to avoid mixing hard covers with paper backs.
But the most important thing about a thought out organization is that you can easily tell when a certain title is missing from the book collection as opposed to if they were just mixed up.
Keep the books clean
Of course, you would wonder if books can gather dust if the owner is an ardent reader!
Yes. Just like many people obsess with new clothes, readers get obsessed with their latest buy and those already read will indeed gather dust.
But dust is only a part of the problem, the biggest danger could be pests that books attract, cockroaches and rats – it becomes important for one to regularly dust the books and clean the shelf.
But this not for a simple sake of keeping pests away, cleaning books regularly is the simple solution to dust, that one that keeps readers sneezing when they open a book that has kept for a long time.
Buy what you need
Some people are inspired to start home libraries after seeing one in another person’s home. Most time, while starting, we tend to buy a lot of books for the sake of accumulating numbers. This may bite you in future, especially when you realise you don’t even like some of the books you hurriedly bought.
