Kenyans have little to no reading culture

I recently got into a very heated debate on Twitter over what books are or more practically, what books mean. This was after I responded to Mr. Ken Walibora’s tweet, a renowned Kenyan novelist, about the demise of Bookpoint Bookshop.

It read like this: Bookpoint along Moi Avenue, Nairobi went down about a year or so ago and not as much as a whisper in the media. Why?

My response to the Siku Njema author, which is a view I strongly hold, is that our reading culture is practically non-existent, that’s why no one knows or cares Bookpoint is no more. Kenyans aren’t readers, I said. A fellow Twitter user tagged into the conversation and told me that the baulk to reading is the exorbitant prices of books.

I say that’s nonsense! I know people who would never read even a free book! It will just gather dust on their nightstands.

While I’m willing to content that books are not as pocket-friendly in Kenya as they are in the West, and that we don’t have enough bookstores for easy access, I’d wish that for once, just once, the peddlers of that notion would admit that that statement is simply self-justifying. It is a shallow excuse that’s neither here nor there. Affordability is just a scratch on the surface of the real problem. We’re lazy readers. And we are book snobs. Our socialization on what books are is a problem.

For most Kenyans, books are squarely a means to an end, for papers and careers. That’s it. Book closed. Kenyans have relegated reading books for English-lit majors in universities or a hobby for geeks. Even people with lots of time on their hands don’t read.

This ‘Tweep’ followed it up by saying that ‘serious books’ (the kind she reads) unlike the ‘funny ones’ (she sees on the streets) go between Sh2500 and 4000.

I’d like to categorically state that only Jeff Koinange’s memoir and Raila’s biography cost that much at Prestige bookshop, Nairobi, in hardcover. That should not stop anyone from reading other ‘cheaper’ books on the shelves now, should it? Like say, Mandela, if biographies are your thing, right?

Still….I still had this uncanny feeling over what ‘serious’ or ‘funny’ books were. Fiction? Is fiction serious? Is nonfiction serious? Funny what is ‘funny’? A euphemism for cliché or what? Now, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens goes for Sh390 at Prestige. Is that NOT serious enough? Is it funny? Because it’s Sh390? The ‘Tweep’ clarified; according to her, ‘serious’ books are self-help and motivational books; ‘funny’ books are romance novels. Wow! Nicholas Sparks, one of the best romance writers of our time, has all his books retailing at above Sh1000 in the same bookshop. Is that not ‘serious’ enough, because its romance? I still access the same books, from my second hand street vendor at Sh100 or two.

On the issue off ‘serious’ books, let me just say that the gatekeepers of this culture like The New York Times book review will back me up on this one. Sparks will trounce Napoleon Hill any day. But anyway that’s not the point of this discussion.

What I gathered is that Kenyans are just as obsessed with fix-me-quickly-books as they are with extortionist pastors. That microwave solutions to real life problems are the order of the day. We come to books with our heavy baggage awaiting unloading.

Can you relate this with the quail saga years ago? Any observable patterns? Finally! I thought you would! Reality check people! It can’t happen!

Even in our schools, we haven’t quite grasped the art of learning. Our kids don’t see education as a fun learning expedition with classmates as allies in the trip. Education has lost its fun element inside our classrooms, from kindergarten to university.

As a reading crusader, I’m always of the view that when it comes to books, to each his own. I, in fact, would want as many people to read as many different books and materials as they possibly can. You cannot trash a used novel as ‘funny’ when you haven’t even opened its pages and gotten acquainted with its contents now, can you? Welcome to Kenya!

When it comes to literature review, all I can say is this; names like Kiyosaki or Joel Osteen don’t feature at all. Look at the top charts! The New York Times book review! The Paris review! While I wouldn’t call such books ‘funny’, they aren’t considered as ‘serious’ books by critics. No literature critic worth his salt would ever endorse them. In fact what most of us don’t know is that the Third World is the dumping ground of most of these self-help quick-fix garbage. Unless written by a ‘real’ writer, motivational books are rarely deemed as ‘serious literature’ anywhere in the world. But there are exceptions. For example, if John Grisham was to write a book about “How to be a Successful Author” the book would become an overnight bestseller and the reviews would be magnanimous. And he will get space in the New Yorker. He is tested. His style is known. That’s why.

It’s only fair to state forthrightly that I no longer read motivational books for the same reason I don’t do crash diets. But I would, if it’s Grisham, probably not for the contents, but for the creativity. Or cliché as it may sound, because it is Grisham!

Motivational books are good when only you’re looking for instant gratification, one of the vices that my dear mother warned me about. But if you are the kind that can apply Napoleon Hill’s thinking-and-becoming rich principles in real life, then by all means please!

Serious reading should be about the beauty of the story. That’s what books are about. It should be about the mechanics the writer has employed the plot, the creativity, the poetic meaning. It’s the reason I’d have Sydney Sheldon over Kiyosaki any day. It’s more of what’s shown rather than what’s said.  

Whereas the books we read impact us in one way or another, expecting them to solve our problems is insatiable. Life is increasingly complex and dynamic. If you’re looking for a book to solve your life, try the Bible, but spare us the trouble by expecting all books written by mere mortals to read like that. It will never happen. I feel sorry for people who never just get to enjoy a story. Have you read Stephen King’s Misery? It is about time, don’t you think?

I’ll end with this: A good book should entertain you. Stir up your imagination. Make you think. Inspire you, at times, not necessarily baby-feed you life lessons.