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A True Story
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Books I'd Love to Read Again
A True Story
on Nov 13, 2018
Copyright ©
I have always been an avid reader ever since I was a child. Indeed, a strong case can be made that I passed both my KCPE and KCSE exams not out of natural brilliance but by dint of reading a lot.
As a child, I read mostly comics which my father bought for us. My favourite cartoons were those published by the "Standard" newspaper every Sunday in a pull-out magazine. I also enjoyed the "Tin Tin" comic books that a classmate of mine brought to school.
In high school, my favourite books were those in the African Writers' Series which I think were published when African nations were gaining independence from their colonial masters. Among the writers in the series whose books thrilled me were Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Amu Djoleto and Waruhiu Itote (General China).
Then when I was pursuing a diploma in information technology at Starehe Institute, I switched my reading focus to computer programming and inspirational materials. I devoured books on C++, Java and Visual Basic as well as motivational classics like Jeff Keller's Attitude is Everything and Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich.
And then when I was at the university in JKUAT, I broadened my reading by including memoirs and biographies in my reading repertoire as well as books on American history. I read so much about American history that today, I can rattle off the names of all 20th century American presidents and in the order in which they served.
I still do read a lot. And I find reading to be a richly rewarding hobby. Currently, I am planning to acquire the following books that inspired me in the past but which I either lost along the way or weren't mine at the time I read them:
- Reagan's Journey: Lessons From a Remarkable Career by Margot Morrell - I borrowed this book from the American Reference Centre in Nairobi but had to return it after three weeks.
- The 1999 Person of the Century Time Magazine - I bought this magazine when I was in high school at Starehe Boys' Centre with my pocket money but some wretched rascal stole it from me.
- An Enemy Called Average by John Mason - I found this uplifting book while ransacking my father's property. Unfortunately, I placed it in a matatu's dashboard and forgot to pick it when I was alighting from the matatu.
- Encounters From Africa: An Anthology of Short Stories - I read this book in high school as a KCSE set book and it thrilled me to bits. But the copy I had belonged to Starehe Boys' Centre, so I had to return it after I cleared my KCSE exams.
- Become a Better You by Joel Osteen - A lady at All Saints' Cathedral in Nairobi lent me this book sometime in 2010. I found it so invigorating that I underlined numerous sentences throughout the book. Needless to say, I returned it to the owner after I was done reading it; I therefore can't get back to the book to reread the passages that invigorated me - how sad!
- How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie - I used to own this enlightening book. But one day in 2011 when I was at the University of Nairobi library, I left the book on a table. And lo! When I went back to the table to continue reading, I found it missing; someone had taken it. Maybe the guy who took the book thought it belonged to the library.
- A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o - I found this novel to be totally engrossing when I read it during my high school years. Unfortunately, it was chewed by termites in our old wooden house. The termites nibbled all the pages of the novel and then left its cover for me; that's funny, isn't it?
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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on the books I'd love to read again, you might also enjoy another one on "Lessons I learnt From Books" which I wrote sometime back. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.
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