Reading Novels

Back in the '90s when my siblings and I were growing up, our father encouraged us to read novels. He bought us plenty of them which he probably thought would help us fare well in school.

Despite Dad's efforts, only my eldest brother Joe Kagigite devoured novels. I would observe him exchange some of them with his friends who visited him at home.

One afternoon in 1997, I passed by Joe's room and found him with one of those big novels that he read. I picked the novel up, opened it and then burst into excitement after I recognized several words in it.

So much was I excited at being able to recognize words in the thick novel that I boasted about it to my other siblings. Little did I know that there is more to reading novels than recognizing words; we have to understand the story that the author is narrating.

In spite of reading novels avidly, Joe didn't manage to score an 'A' or an 'A-' in English in his final high school exams known as KCSE. That makes me wonder if he really understood the novels he read.

As for me, I didn't start reading novels till 1998 when I was in Standard 5. But unlike Joe, I only went for the thin novels such as Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe which made me fancy being stranded in an island. Looking back, I find it was wise of me to read only thin novels as I was still too young to understand the thick ones.

When I joined Starehe Boys' Centre in 2002 for my high school education, I read medium-sized novels by African writers but only over school holidays, for I was too focused on excelling in academics to read novels at school. Furthermore, it was an offence at Starehe to read novels in class.

You know what? As I transitioned to senior high school, I stopped reading novels apart from Chinua Achebe's A Man of the People. I read that novel because it was a set book, and I feared devouring other novels would take up space in my memory that I wanted to reserve for the knowledge I needed to excel in academics.

Sometime in 2004 when Dad urged me to read novels, I pleaded with him to let me read only academic books. I almost cried that night he tried talking me into reading novels.

It seems to me now that my fear that reading novels would take up space in my memory was unfounded because one night in 2005 when we were preparing for our KCSE exams, I spotted my classmate Brian Nalyanya reading a book that looked like a novel. Nalyanya went on to emerge among the top 10 students in the country in our KCSE results. He scored an 'A' in all the subjects he sat for, including English which I got an 'A-' despite having applied myself to studying only set books.

After I finished high school in November 2005, I never became an avid reader of novels. Imagine between 2006 and 2019, I only read about five novels which, regrettably, I never kept in my room for future re-reading. How I wish I had those novels in my room just to take pride in knowing I have read them!

This year, I have started reading novels avidly - the novels that Dad bought for us when we were growing up. Unlike before, I am now reading even the thick novels and keeping in my room the ones that captivate me.

Why, you may ask, have I chosen to devour novels? Because I believe reading novels improves our thinking and communication skills, and ultimately the quality of our lives. That's all I am saying.

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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on reading novels, you might also enjoy another one on "A Trip We Made to Mombasa" which I wrote earlier this year. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.