While apathy to book reading by a majority of Nigerians have been blamed on several factors, attention is now shifting to how to get young ones to start early by providing them book-friendly environments, especially in the home where it should begin, as book lovers have begun to affirmTHERE was sheer enthusiasm and an overflowing passion for the printed word last Saturday, April 30 at the reading room at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos. Book-lovers had again gathered to listen to celebrities read to them. It was at the 8th edition of the monthly CelebrityRead Africa book event. Eventually, the small reading room proved too small for the gathering of book lovers.In a sense, it debunked the claim that Nigerians dont read. If that were so, why had school children (students of Liham Schools, Yaba, were special guests), old and young alike gathered just to listen to people read and talk books Indeed, it would seem that such gathering is what had been lacking these many years to the blight of the book. While there are books everywhere, books may not have been placed in charged environments, where reading them becomes second nature.This seemed the consensus on the evening when hip-hop music crooner, Sound Sultan was one of the celebrities that read hard stuff to children. There was also vice chair of Abuja chapter of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Mrs. Theresa Ameh, who read from one of her childrens book, The Twins. There was African-American-Spanish lady and executive director, America-Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Mrs. Bisila Bokoko, who flew in from the U.S. just to be part of the book event.Also, debutant Michael Afenfia, author of historical novel When the Moon Caught Fire and Silverbird TV presenter Miss Onyi Sunday, who read from Purple Hibiscus were guest readers. A couple of other writers were also present to lend their voices to the book argument that had long become urgent: How to get Nigerians reading again!But it was the Managing Director, Hidden Treasures Bookstore, a bookseller, Mrs. Dupe Ehirim that put the entire discourse in perspective, when she said a book-friendly environment, especially in the home, was very important if children were to be made to treasure reading as part of their upbringing. Various discussants had stated that children would have to be forced to read, especially at home with some kind of reward inducement like asking them to read before they could watch television.When such question was posed to the children if they liked to be forced to read, their responses were as startling as they were troubling. How did they feel when they were given the matching order to read or forfeit their fun They said they felt angry, sad and even threatened! But they all seemed to agree that they resorted to reading when there was nothing left of interest or excitement to see on television or when there was power outage!At the end, Ehirim stated that there was too much focus on reading to pass examinations than engaging children in reading to relax or for pleasure. We focus too much on studying and reading to pass examinations and not reading for enjoyment, she argued. We need to take children to bookstores and libraries and for them to listen to people whom books have affected positively. Children need books around them all the time to develop love for them. When we were growing up, we used to borrow books from the British Council library as it used to bring books on their mobile library to our school.Ehirim further told her audience that her sonhad asked her before she set out for the event if the celebrity guest reader and music star Sound Sultan also read! Indeed for most young people, their beloved stars are hardly associated with reading. But to her sons impressionable mind, the affirmation that their idols read would have the salutary effect of redirecting their young minds to books in their bid to be like their heroes.Ameh also blamed parents for their inability to steer children in the right path, especially the path of books. She said parents, especially rich ones, preferred to buy their children toys, computer games, Play Station and other distracting gadgets rather than books. In fact, she stated that rich parents would not investing in books for their children, adding, The rich dont believe they should give their children books as gifts.She said she wrote The Twins when her son was five: Most of my books are about going back to the village because I never grew up in the village myself. So, the story is actually my story. I loved the first time I got to the village. I fell in love with palm kernel, which I would break and chew and chew to the amazement of everybody.Sunday also called on parents to draw more of their childrens attention to books as it seemed they hadnt been doing much in that direction in recent times. For her also, children should be forced to read. Afenfia said parents seemed to have lost the edge in engaging their children in reading as they seemed to have relaxed somewhat unlike how it was before. He narrated how, when they went on a trip, his six years old son nearly denied them sleep the first night because they forgot to pack his books along; he could not sleep unless he had read himself to sleep.On providing a book-friendly environment to engage children, Sound Sultan also lent credence to Ehirims view, saying it was a sure way of directing young ones attention to libraries and places where books are to be found to deepen their interest in books. The music crooner, who came late to the event read from Wole Soyinkas A Climate of Fear. Why that choice of book for him to read from in a gathering with young school children was a wonder, especially in a reading room filled with so many childrens books.The artiste further told the children to disabuse their minds about the library as a boring place as most of them often imagined it. Rather, he charged them to befriend it as the library held the key to their future. He told them, Some of you see the library as very boring. We need to stamp out that notion from students. You may not know the advantages of it right now. Reading is not about impressing your mum or teacher; it enables you to forge ahead in life. Visit the library more often.Im a product of good reading. I dont know about other entertainers but its what enables me as a songwriter to do poetry in my music, in the writing of rhymes in my songs. Whatever I do, I do it with calculation, and its because I read; it enables me to write. Even my name, Sound Sultan, is alliterative in sound.But it was Bokoko, while kick starting the evening of reading and discussion that engaged the childrens intellect and imagination when she read from The Secret, a book about genies. She asked the children to imagine whatever they could and aspire to it and they would get it. She said the moral of the story was that they could be anything they want to be if they could imagine it as it was in their power to do so. She confessed her love for books and writers although she said she wasnt a writer herself. It was her love for books that made her traveled several miles across the seas to be at the event in Nigeria.The reading was spiced with musical interludes that provided therapy against boredom.
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