Reading Revolution

The explorer in me likes to travel to far flung places and experience new sights, sounds and people.

The detective in me likes to try to figure out who has committed a crime and why.

The romantic in me likes to find out how people got together, the rocky road they’ve travelled and how it …

It started as an exercise in escapism. I think I was 8 or 9 or 10 years old. Real life was a bit too drab and painful for someone with my sense of fair play. So I chose to get lost in adventures had by fictional characters in far-away lands over fist-fights and childish …

Why do I read?

I started reading at a young age, encouraged by my parents to read not just the alphabet, but to grasp larger words. And so, evening, before dinner time, would find me sitting next to my dad, trying out the newspaper, large in my tiny six year old hands. The fact that …

I am a traveler

I have tickets to everywhere

I know that isn’t fair

And if you think this is hot air

Allow me to share;

Manuscripts are my airfare!

A book in hand

Is worth a ticket around the world

Many that …

To commemorate the Day of the African Child, on June 16th, thousands of children around Kenya will read aloud together from the same story. The reading will start at 9:00am, and students will read aloud in groups, either in their classes or the whole school together.

This year’s theme for the Day of the African …

Spare me the agony of writing for you an Eulogy of ‘Hallo Children’ Brisk I remember Tom and Mary, I do not remember if it’s the first book I read, But am pretty sure its not.

Spare me the agony of writing for you an Eulogy of ‘Whispers’ Brisk I remember Mutahi Kagwe (May …

There is not a question in the world that does not have an answer in one book or another.

I have always been, for as long as I can remember, a keen reader. I don’t know why exactly. Could be the feel of paper on the fingers, the pictures in my head as …

My family didn’t have a TV till I lobbied for one successfully at the age of 6. @andywarhola could write tales about that, too. The distinct and utter lack of a TV. Or, going to the neighbour’s house to watch one. On the sly. That house, for me, was my friend Subira’s (her name means …

Pass me the words, pass me those sentences

Place the books on my varnished escritoire

Worry not if they are “E” or paperback,It doesn’t matter,

I’ll read them all;I’ll savor each tasty word

And internalize each piquant sentence

To make a part of me whole

I will read them once, twice, three times,a thousand times,

…

First Published on The Diary of a Serial Schizo

When I was 7, my parents moved to Central (and – to my young mind – very poor) Kenya, from West (and – clearly – very posh) Lands, following a significant change in social status. At that young age, I gradually grew tired of the nagging. …

First Published on The Bourgeoise without Boho

I was moving house a few years ago, but because I didn’t own a car and I was only moving down the road, I enlisted the help of a cabbie. He took one look at my boxes and cases and burst out laughing, then charged me 4 times the …

I began reading because I liked it. That sounds simple, almost quaint, but it’s the truth. I am a lover of stories, and these books — amazing books — carried the stories. Also, reading was something I could do by myself; that is no small thing for a kid. While pretty much anything else I …

The image that accompanies this text clearly illustrates that I really love to read. It also illustrates how socially awkward people who love to read tend to be. Ha! We snub our noses at liquor [ahem] and at proper etiquette that requires us to sit up, look around and talk to people.

But what …

I read because I have a BIG gaping hole in my consciousness that I want to fill. I not only want to fill it but I also want to shovel out the crap that makes up part of it contents, the void. The emptiness is a beast that is alive and its called ignorance. Every time I read instead …

First Published on The Green Calabash.

Tonsillitis. This was the disease that introduced me to the magnificent world of reading. You see, at some point during my early childhood, I learned that this was a very serious ailment. One that could earn me an immediate ticket to the school sick room. When the rigors of Standard …

  At the tender age of 5, my mom, my dad and I moved to Ethiopia. Back then, Ethiopia was a veritable mass of boredom, considering the fact that I did not speak the language and there was simply nowhere to go. There were no cinemas, there were no malls…2 or three fancy restaurants, the …

I’m sitting at my computer, ready to type

Poised to explain, what’s with all the hype

My palms are sweaty and I am tense

Deadlines are looming, and I’m not making sense!

My head is hurting and my stomach is growling

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The first book I remember reading was about a hippo. I’m sure my mum had read me loads of books before then but this is the first one I can remember reading for myself. It was one of those plastic books that you can read in a bath tub and I read it so much …

Why do I read, you ask? Simple. I read because reading makes me a superhero with incredible powers. When I enter into the magical world of a book, an immediate strong and binding bond is created between the words and I. Well crafted words that thread into a story guaranteed to keep me intrigued to …

I think my earliest treasured memory is of my teacher complimenting me on my reading prowess. She was telling my dad that I was so intelligent I could read a newspaper; I was 7 years old. I may not remember her name but what she said about me stayed with me.

I started reading …

I am a child of many worlds.

It is a blessing and a curse. Because I know that there are other worlds, I do not accept only what I know, but seek to find out what else there is, before I choose which world suits me best. Even as a little girl, I found …

I Read Because Of Why

When I was a child I never really fit in to crowds. So I overcompensated by being loud and making a fool of myself therefore as opposed to being the random kid that walked the street with his hands in his pockets kicking a can, I was the kid who …

Written by Aleya Jamel

I have a confession to make. I have multiple personalities. I seem fairly normal, but what you don’t know about me is all the lives that I have lived. I can’t remember the precise age, at which I was conscripted in, as the secret unwritten-about member of a group …

Written by Claudette Oduor

I don’t know when exactly I first discovered the magic of stringing words together and watching them explode into confetti behind my eyes. I can’t remember when I first had the patience to see what would happen at the end of the sentence. I wonder, did my eyes widen that very …