I didn't know what the term DCIO stands for, so I googled it. After some deft navigation on the internet, I landed on Wikipedia where I learnt that the term DCIO stands for Divisional Criminal Investigation Officer. And the officer is part of the Kenya Police Service.
Wikipedia gave further information on how the Kenya Police Service works. It said that the service is sub-divided into the following departments: flying Squad, anti-banking fraud unit, special crime prevention unit, anti-terrorism unit, ballistics unit, anti-narcotics unit, bomb squad, cyber forensics, forensic department and kanga squad.
The words "kanga squad" made me giggle because they sounded funny to my ears. But I quickly got serious and pondered about the crimes that the police combat. Man, we live in a fallen world for shizzle.
It has dawned on me that the most effective way to cushion ourselves from crimes is by being discerning and knowledgeable. That means we should acquire knowledge daily like our life depends on it. And, in my opinion, reading is the best method of increasing our knowledge base.
When it comes to reading, I think it's unwise to read only motivational books about how to be rich and successful. Doing so can make us unrealistic, a recipe for depression and other mental illnesses.
You see, motivational books tell us that we should just do it, that "if Obama did it, you can do it better", that "whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve", and that "whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
Such motivational quotes do contain some element of truth but if that's all we read, we are bound to become, as I have said, unrealistic. We will end up doing things that are not right for us, or doing the right things at the wrong time.
Maybe it's the tendency for some books to make us unrealistic that compels framers of school curriculum to expose students to a wide variety of knowledge. They even make maths and languages to be compulsory subjects.
Not wanting to be one of those unrealistic people, I have diversified my home library by including such books as:
- The Holy Bible
- Glencoe Health: A Guide to Wellness
- The Africans by David Lamb
- A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (a memoir)
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
- The Butterfly Box by Santa Montefiore (a novel)
To prove that I have grown wiser, I recently got rid of thirteen counterfeit books that I had purchased. Some of the books, such as Michelle Obama's Becoming and Robin Sharma's The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, were very captivating.
Those counterfeit books cost me about KSh 7,000, money that I would have used to buy genuine books. Even though the genuine books would have been fewer, they would have been worth their weight in gold.
You may be asking: Why did I have to get rid of the counterfeit books? Because I believe we do authors a disservice when we purchase books that don't earn them royalties even after they expend a lot of effort in writing the books.
Now that I have only genuine books in my room, I am looking forward to acquiring more books once I start earning good money from my blogging hobby. Oh, how I enjoy reading widely and wisely!
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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on reading widely and wisely, you might also enjoy another one on "Books I'd Love to Read Again" which I wrote a couple of years ago. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.
