A Weekend with Books

Time out with folks and books.

By noon on Friday, 15th October, I was contacted by an acquaintance who is a facilitator with the Deaf Kids Book Club, an initiative of the Deaf Technology Foundation founded by Wuni Bitrus. Two weeks ago I was at one of their meetings by serendipity. I was on visit to the Jarding Reading Garden. It turned out they were having their periodic book club meetings. The experience was colourful and beautiful; seeing how communication happens in the deaf community and how that they could read and understand; and several other fascinations against the stereotypes meted against them by society.

A cross section of the book chat.

A proposal was made for me to anchor the meeting which will hold the next day, 16th October. It was a book chat with Mr. Thaine and Prof. Eberhard (a community professor) who are friends of the Jenta Reads Community Library from the US. Considering that I had some errands to run before the set time for the event, I declined the proposal. Somehow, I arrived the venue by 10:30am, the time for the event.

All was set in place. Some attendants were on site. The personalities who were spotlights for the meeting had not arrived at the time. Before 11:00am, it was apparent that I would have to anchor the session. With my consent, I was allowed to have the steering.

The session was a discussion in response to the question:

What book changed your life?

Participants shared their preferences with brief reviews of them. Some were Gifted Hands by Ben Carson, The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers and several others.

Besides the conversations around book preferences, there was an opportunity to network. An opportunity to match faces to names encountered online. It is always interesting to meet someone whom you may have been friends with on, say Facebook, but have never had a chat together, not even in DM. Only that you follow each others' public posts and comments.

A shot taken during the networking session.

Talk about interacting with the deaf. It was a wonderful experience to see how they adapt to the challenges intercepting with their accessing the basic needs of social life.

After the time I spent at the reading garden, I visited the Books2Africa distribution centre in Jos with an older acquaintance, whom I refer to as Nature's Bride due to her attachment with non-human entities of nature.

Books2Africa signboard

At Books2Africa books are sold at a flat rate of N300 regardless of size or whatever criterion. However, educational (school) textbooks are sold at a flat rate of N600. It is located in Avalon suites along Rayfield road, just after Adireje West Africa petrol refill  station which is adjacent the main entrance into Airforce Military School, Jos.

A search through the racks in Books2Africa distribution store in Jos.

I had seen photos of the store and how it is filled with books on the internet. I had to see the space for myself. It was an amazing sight! They had books on whatever topic or subject one can think of, at least for me. I saw a copy of The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. I could not pick it for a friend gifted me a copy at the book chat. I saw books by  William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, J. K. Rowlings, Stephen King, and several other renown authors from abroad. There were tons of literature around the history of Britain and those around Africa sprinkled in the sectioned racks.

You can mention a book you are searching for in the comment and I will tell you if I saw it or not.

Nature's Bride and I ran through the racks, made our selections after several exchanges between intermittent rests. We even had in-depth conversations around issues books inspired and other wonderful moments like helping a young lady fish out every piece written about Star Wars.

Since the experience which inspired Of Unwritten Principles, my entire week has been in and around books. The whole experience climaxed on this beautiful Saturday which had several phases of weather; cloudy, sunshine, and rain.

I would wrap this piece by sharing a few tips to consider before visiting Books2Africa:

1. Visit the store with a squad of not less than 3 persons.

2. Before going through the racks, tell each other what subjects you would want to find books on.  It is almost like an effort  in futility to rake the racks with a book title in mind; the chances of finding the book is slim just as is the certainty of it being available; however, serendipity may prevail. 

3. I strongly advice that you visit with a strict budget.

4. Try not to go through the racks again (only if necessary) after selections, else you'd battle indecision.

My picks at the store.

Any question you have, I will attempt responding to them in the comment section.