In 2015, I decided to improve my reading habit. This required a concious effort to engage in activities that will help me achieve this goal. It’s been a rewarding journey.
Truth is, its always a challenge making time to read, especially when you have a lot of things to do on a daily basis. It could be a demanding job, an academic work or a demanding family.
For me I believe the essence of life is to improve. So, the onus is on each individual to figure out ways to improve life. How to add value to yourself by continuously working on yourself. Building a strong reading habit is certainly one way to achieve this.
To go beyond merely reading to knowledge acquisition and retention, you have to be hungry for knowledge. You have to go out there and search for the knowledge you’re looking for in libraries, bookshops or on the internet. You also need to build momentum for this habit to stay for the long term.
Some of the simple tips that have helped me are:
I use each book I am reading as my Whatsapp profile picture, I often have friends asking me about it. This way I get to share what I am reading with them which gives me a positive feeling. Since I want more of this positive feeling, there’s an impetus to continue.
I take notes while I read. Sometimes in a notebook or on Google Notes if I am reading on my phone.
I also make time to review each book after reading it. I normally do a one or two page summary of the book.
Share it. This is normally done by making mention of the book in a conversation with a colleague and sharing a nugget or two from it.
MY 2015 LIST
The Trouble With Nigeria - Chinua Achebe
This is a very short book of about 60 pages filled with wisdom from unquestionably one of Africa’s finest writers. In this book Chinua Achebe puts Nigeria’s problems firmly and squarely on the failure of leadership. He argues that the trouble with Nigeria is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to responsibility. The troubles of corruption, tribalism, indiscipline, mediocrity etc are not just peculiar to Nigeria. The are still prevalent across many countries across the African continent.
There Was A Country - Chinua Achebe
This book is Chinua Achebe’s memoir on the Biafra war from 1967 to 1970. He writes movingly about his parents, his nuclear family and his days at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He also ruminates on the tragic events of the Nigerian Civil War as the Biafrans sought succession from Nigeria.
Everybody Writes - Anne Handley
Everybody Writes is one of the reasons I put up this blog. To be a good writer Anne Handley shares an important nugget: its not an art, its a habbit. Truth is, everybody writes in todays content-driven world, whether its a Facebook post, a tweet, a text message or a one page official document. You can be ridiculously good at creating good content if you write often.
Poke The Box - Seth Godin
In this 54 page booklet Seth Godin charges people to start. He motivates us to stop being afraid of failure and why avoiding failure is counter productive. He advices that we stop waiting for the perfect roadmap but instead make one.
Neo-Colonialism The Last Stage of Imperialism - Kwame Nkrumah
One remarkable thing about Nkrumah is that, despite the demanding nature of his work as the first president of Ghana, he made time to write. Neo-Colonialism The Last Stage of Imperialism is one of three books he wrote as president. This is Nkrumah’s treatise on post colonial Africa, he was vociferous that while Africa remains divided progress is bound to be painfully slow. He makes a strong point for Africans to control their own destiny and make a bid to be totally independent and self-reliant. Nkrumah argues against capitalism as as the embodiment of the philosophy of self interest.
The Social & Political Thought of Kwame Nkrumah - Ama Biney
In order to understand history a bit more I latched on this book. Ama Biney gives a thorough analysis of the political, social, economic and cultural thoughts of Kwame Nkrumah. His family, education, activism, politics, marriage, religion, mentors and more. She also treats us to the rise and fall of Nkrumah.
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
I bought this book a year ago but couldn’t make time to read it. I laid hands on it one weekend and boy, couldn’t I stop reading. For me, Barack Obama is a rare political breed. His oratory and sense of empathy are mind blowing. In the book he writes genuinely about the effects of politics on his family. He also writes about America in general: politics, constitution, values, racism and opportunity.
Startup Community - Brad Feld
The founder of TechStars shares strategies on creating a successful startup ecosystem anywhere in the world. Though most of his examples were drawn from the United States. He highlights four main attributes of a successful startup ecosystem: it has to be led by entrepreneurs; these entrepreneurs must have a long-term commitment to the ecosystem; the ecosystem must be inclusive, accept those who fail and finally the ecosystem must have continual activities to engage entrepreneurs.
Built To Last - Jim Collins
Business gurus Jim Collins and Jerry Porras set out to use an six year research to differentiate the timeless principles that separate truly great companies from their peers. They shatter popularly held views (having a great idea; having great and charismatic leadership; maximising profits etc) about business and provide practical guidelines on how to create a company that stands the test of time.