One thing I’ve noticed these days is how hard it has become to buy books here in Nigeria. In the past, you could literally buy them everywhere. They were on the roadside, they were in bookshops and whatnot. All you had to do was see them, and you would find dozens of novels if not hundreds of them. Back then, they were also cheap, which was how many of us got to read so many of them at the time.
There were periods during my secondary school days when I could read a 400-page book in a single day. I did that by starting it the minute I got the book. I would read it, even when classes were going on. I did this by hiding the novel inside a notebook, or a textbook so my teacher didn’t notice it. Then, I’d be flipping through the pages. And if the story is an interesting one, then you know that tearing me away from it would be difficult.
When going home, I still read! I used to trek home then and it was a good time to also read. Oh yeah! By walking on the pedestrian walkway, I was able to read the book comfortably, momentarily glancing up to see when other people were coming too close to me.
By the time I got home, I was all about the book. I would ignore everything I had to do just to keep reading. If my mom sent me on an errand, I would run like a maniac to get it done just to get back to my book. And the later it got, the more freedom I had. And as night got darker, so did the house get quiet. Making the story even more immersive.
Back then, if there was no light, I used the rechargeable lamp for hours, taking it to bed with me where I would continue reading. I did this until the battery died and the lamp went really dim. I would have to almost place the lamp inside the page to see the words.
But then, I always finished it eventually. Sometime around midnight, I would get to the final page. And when I do that, I’ll suddenly remember that I’ve still got a lot of things to do. I need to wash my school uniforms in time for the next morning or do my assignment. And with the same lamp that is almost dead, I would try to do all that. Washing my clothes and squeezing out all the water with a towel. It always rumpled it, but it was an option when there was no light.
Thankfully though, we usually had light in the mornings, so I used iron to fix that problem.
Anyway, my point is that the novels we bought all that time were used to really keep us busy in those years. However, in recent years, I’ve stopped seeing them. These days, when you go to a bookshop, you only find textbooks and notebooks being sold. You rarely see those guys at the roadside anymore. Did all this have to do with the dollar going up? Or have people stopped buying books?
Simply put, selling books in Nigeria is kind of hard. You can’t even get a reliable store to sell your work. These days, if you want to read, you might have to buy it directly from the author. Imagine if we all had to buy Purple Hibiscus directly from Chimamanda Adichie or Things Fall Apart from Chinua Achebe. That’s what is going on.
Is this simply another consequence of social media and smartphone craze? I know that with ebooks becoming more popular, people are switching over because of the ease. But to date, I still find reading from an actual book to be more comfortable. I can toss and turn in any way I want in bed while reading it. I also won’t have UV rays beating down on my face.
I really wish that we could go back to those days. Because those days introduced me to the likes of Nora Roberts, Stephen King, Sydney Sheldon, and James Hadley Chase… Just to name a few. As in ehn… saying that I’ve read thousands of books during my lifetime would not be an overstatement. And it’s sad that this is not something that I can continue. I know that I can’t read at the pace I used to anymore, not now that I have a job and responsibilities. But I’d still like to curl up in bed with a book made of paper once in a while and read a story that will slowly suck me in.
It’s a feeling I’d love to experience again.
Discord Server.This post has been manually curated by @bhattg from Indiaunited community. Join us on our
Do you know that you can earn a passive income by delegating to @indiaunited. We share more than 100 % of the curation rewards with the delegators in the form of IUC tokens. HP delegators and IUC token holders also get upto 20% additional vote weight.
Here are some handy links for delegations: 100HP, 250HP, 500HP, 1000HP.
100% of the rewards from this comment goes to the curator for their manual curation efforts. Please encourage the curator @bhattg by upvoting this comment and support the community by voting the posts made by @indiaunited..
This post received an extra 13.09% vote for delegating HP / holding IUC tokens.
Thank you for this.
I think the interest of reading books has been reduced and I think smartphone is the reason behind it. The cost of books has been increased but I don't think it can restrict people to read books if they are really interested to read books.
Yeah... there is a general disinterest in reading books. It's just sad.