Dear Fellow,
What is the word for library in your mother tongue?
Please hold on a bit—until the end of this piece—before you respond. Thank you.
I apologise for not showing up last week Saturday. I had promised to not add another no-despatch day to this year's log. Three of such was to be the maximum. But the record shows last week Saturday was the fifth no-despatch day. Life happens, and I am still learning to give up control. Oh well, here is today's despatch and I hope you like it.
“Wungakha,” she called my name calmly, silencing anxiety. “Why do you read?”
I wondered why that question. We had spent more than an hour discussing my journey as a creator since 2018, her journey as a Nigerwife (a foreign woman married to a Nigerian man), a professor at a public university, and everything in between that connects to her creativity. I had shared all that was sufficient clues as answers to that question in the conversation, or so I thought. Why, did she have to ask again?
A little over a year ago, I had intentionally asked myself that question. I think I still do, because, as with everything else in life, we seek meaning in our dealings. We want to know the whys, especially of the things that matter to us. The most common of the why questions being, “Why am I alive, here on earth?” As for reading, I settled for an answer, and I told this professor just that.
“I read primarily to improve on my craft (writing).”
To me, I had killed it. I thought I had given the perfect answer, especially because she had followed my writings on Facebook for a while and gave commendations. She teaches creative writing, too. That was a good reason to believe I had won her approval. To find a practising writer without any academic training in the craft and say that he reads to do better at the craft seemed great. She expected more than just that answer.
“Wungakha, you also should read for the pleasure and fun of it and to expand your vocabulary.” She let it sink in for a moment before she followed up.
Reading to improve my craft (writing) meant to me, at the time, studying techniques used by especially authors whose works I appreciate and revere. It meant observing how they put to use the rules and principles of the craft, as I read about from books like The Elements of Style,1 On Writing,2 and On Writing Well.3 It was all about the techniques but little or nothing about the pleasures of the art. (Yes, reading is also an art. “Unlike everyday reading,” writes Timothy Spurgin, “artful reading - the way we read novels and short stories - is less about reading for specific information and more reading to revel in the literary experience.”4)
Two things she mentioned—for the pleasure (and fun) of it and to expand my vocabulary. Reading does give pleasure. The better argument in support of that claim is to seek an experience of it for yourself by picking up a book, as little as under a hundred pages, based on your subject of interest at the time, and read the book just for the pleasure of it. For the expansion of vocabulary, I refer to George Orwell's famous piece Nineteen Eighty-Four.5
The people of Oceania were under an absolute totalitarian government, where dissent was not allowed. There, everything the government of Big Brother says and does is correct. The Party alone decides what is wrong and what is right. Of all the means used to achieve their aims of subjugation, devising a new language (Newspeak) is the most potent, such that Orwell dedicated an appendix to it. “Newspeak was designed not to extend but to diminish the range of thought, and this purpose was indirectly assisted by cutting the choice of words down to a minimum.”6 It took this book to show me the wonder of gifts that words and languages are to humanity.
A word is the basic coherent element in human reasoning.
You see, a word is the basic coherent element in human reasoning. The quality of your reasoning depends on the amount of words whose meanings you accurately understand. And what better way to understand words (and their nuances) than to experience how they are used in literature, especially those whose authors practise their craft with regard for the gift that words are and their potency?
Professor Kanchana Ugbabe graciously forced me to rethink why I read. Here’s my why for now: (1) For the pleasure of it (2) To expand my vocabulary (3) To improve my craft, and (4) To improve the quality of my thinking.
So, why do you read, good Fellow?
And do not forget my question at the top. What is the word for library in your mother tongue?
Your LetterMan,
Tongjal, W. N.
William Strunk, Jr., The Elements of Style (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, Inc., 1920), Project Gutenberg.
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (New York: SCRINER, 2000), EPUB.
William Zinsser, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction (New York: HarperCollins ebooks, 2006), PDF.
The Art of Reading, course taught by Timothy Spurgin, The Teaching Company, accessed, https://www.amazon.com/Art-Reading-Timothy-Spurgin/dp/1598035673.
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (Wrights Lane, London: Penguin Books, 1987).
George Orwell, 313.
This piecing is tempting me to write a review of a book I've been procrastinating to.
I love the beauty of this piece. But seriously I'm feeling happy and pushed. You wrote like John Piper's student, a Christian Hedonist. I'm your brother. We pursue joy in everything we do, ultimately.
While I normally read for the same purpose you enumerated above, there is one thing that made us apart. SHARING! After improving my vocabulary and skills, the next thing is to share with others and learn from their perspectives.
There are other whys for my reading which include: making a good use of my little time. For instance, consider a scenario in which I have to travel by road from Jos to Abuja. Instead of sitting idly in the car, I could make good use of the time by reading a book, even if it is just five pages.
The other why is to exercise my eyesight and stimulates my brain. Through reading, I can track if my eyesight are failing, improving or remaining the same. I could track that my brain is working sharper than it was.