The Books We Read In 2014

In the July 21, 2014 edition of TIME, Kristin Van Ogtrop, editor of Real Simple, a powerful consumer magazine, wrote a beautiful column under the title: “Self Helpless: You are always one perfect advice book away from a much better you.” I love Kristin for one thing: She is sincere. In the opening statement of the column, she concedes that she has a “complicated relationship with self-help books” and would “approach the genre with a mixture of interest and dread.” Elsewhere in the article, she admits her difficulty in finding time to read a 512 page book by Daniel J. Levitin. In the end, she urges us to face the truth about the books we have piled on our tables: “They are dusty markers of inadequacy, reminders of the better you that will never be.”

Many of us identify with the 'reading reality' that Kristin has so eloquently described in TIME. And maybe TIME is a good point to start our discussion today: How many of us found time to read TIME last year. I need Kristin's confrontational honesty to confess that as a subscriber to the TIME magazine and other foreign material, I struggle to read the beautiful articles in the magazines. After piling a few copies of the magazine on my desk at work, I selected 3 editions as a present to a senior member of my company. His response was quite revealing: “Sir, there is simply no time to read TIME.” “That makes two of us”, I submitted, pacifying my inadequacies with the scarcity of the commodity called time. I sent the magazines back to my office. I have not read any of them yet.

I may not have found time for TIME, but I managed to read a few books in 2014. President George Bush's Decision Points, Mandela's A Long Walk to Freedom, Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steeland Sam Leith'sWords like Loaded Pistolsare a few of them. These would make my list of foreign writers. Well, I also bought Ivor AgyemangDuah'srecent compilation on Wole Soyinka. I haven't read it. I have many other books in my library gathering dust and cobwebs. Sometimes I pretend I have read all of them when visitors ask to borrow, and I lend themaway with pompous glee.

My list of local authors is not any better. Thankfully, Ghanaians are writing books these days. In the Daily Graphic alone, I read reports of a few books that were launched in 2014. These include Police Boss Reverend Ampah Banning's autobiographical work, Kofi Akpabli's double barrel on 'Ghanaian exceptionalism' and of course Nyaho-NyahoTamakloe'sNever Say Die!, which I am proud to have reviewed in this column. Tamakloe's memoirs, which he coauthored with Professor Felix Odartey-Wellington, a Canadian academic, is one of the best books I have read in a very long time. It is quite big, about 700 pages, but you would finish it in a day if you love good writing. I understand Professor DansoBoafo's book on J.J. Rawlings is not bad at all. The Professor, I meanAzumah Nelson, also wrote a fine book titled 'The Professor.'

I am yet to read Ampah Banning's book. I promised DSP Cephas Arthur that I would do a review of the Reverend's book if I get a free copy. I am curious to know what the police think about themselves and how they manage to manage our expectations. As a Reverend Minister, how has the police boss, who incidentally is apublic relations expert, dealt with the 'flip-flopping' reputation of the police service–inthe light of the public's usually negative perception? I am looking forward to reading that book.

There were many other great works by Ghanaians authors in 2014. I remember reading at least three fantastic reviews of books written by budding female authors. We are gradually warming up to a reading culture where our taste-buds would crave for a new book every day. You would not usually find a passenger in trotro reading anything; not even a newspaper. Even on big commercial buses travelling long distances, not many passengers carry books along to read to kill time. We trust the company of movies on such journeys than good books. You many not find 10 people who read 10 books in 10 months, but there are a few good surprises in our world of books these days. If we encourage people to keep on writing, and our children keep on reading, we would soon develop a culture where boys give books as gifts to theirgirlfriends on Valentine's Day.

How often do we read a book review in our newspapers? Is it difficult or impossible to devote a page or two every day in our best-selling newspapers to book reviews? If we do not have enough books to go round the week, we could reserve a few pages in the Friday and weekend editions of our newspapers for book reviews. I made these suggestions to a Board member of the Daily Graphic when we met at a funeral in Koforidua in June 2014. He was excited about the idea. I assured the Graphic man that I knew a few professionals who would be willing to review a book a week for free if the Graphic bought the idea. We also discussed the possibility of a book review desk at the newspaper's offices, where young journalists would be trained on the review form. Gradually, we would have something close to what you find when you buy a copy of the New York Times or the Telegraph. I am still waiting for the Graphic man's response.

My friends in England and Canada have already made their book list for 2015. Well, I don't have one. It is not one of the resolutions of the average Ghanaian. I would buy a few books in 2015 even though I have some great works on my desk that I never read in 2014. If I manage to read a book every two months, I would have done 6 books at the end of 2015. In Decision Points, Bush tells the amazing story of how he used to 'race-read' books with his friends, even as President of the USA. Yet, my colleague and I didn't find time to read TIME in 2014. Oh, I almost forgot: I read President John Mahama's memoirs in 2014. When a writer succeeds in using 'register' and 'parallelism' as brilliantly as Mahama does, lexicographers describe him in one word: Phenomenal.

KwesiTawiah-Benjamin
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