Confession: I’ve not always loved reading.

My sister was the one who loved reading. Growing up, she almost always had a book in her hand; in the kitchen, in the car, while eating, walking from the dining room to our bedroom, etc. Our shelf was full of books. I probably owned 0.05(!) of them. What a pity.

My mother noticed my apathy to reading and sought to do something about it. I was about 8 or 9 years old then, I think. She encouraged me to read and decided to reward me with money for every book I read and gave a verbal review of. Sounded good to me; I wanted the money. So I’d read one of my sister’s books and would tell her what I read. I would ‘earn’ money, come back with more reviews and then ‘earn’ more money. But the interesting thing was since I was young and didn’t have many financial aspirations at that time (I already had lots of toys and a bicycle), I would always give the money back to my mother for safekeeping, which I never claimed. At some point, I stopped reading for money because I was reading several books per week! Another reader in the family had been born.

But then, in my early teens, my father felt I was not reading enough African literature (remember: Sweet Valley High, Baby Sitters Club, etc.), so he gave me couple of African books that, I think were difficult for my age at that time… or maybe not, only he knew what his intentions were. But his approach demanded more: unlike the tales I would narrate to my mother of which book I had read, I was to write my review of each book, write all the unfamiliar words I came across in my reading and learn these new words by finding out what they meant from the dictionary. And he did make sure to mark my homework (or do we call it, daddy-work?), of course, he is a professor of Ghanaian and African literature!

So in my living abroad experiences, I’ve always been a card holder of public libraries. It’s fun to walk into a library and surprise the old lady volunteer (they have mostly been old ladies!), when I ask for the bestseller section and she provides me with her take on a few of them. I would check out a variety of books each week and return them often before the due date. I intend to keep this habit, should I have the opportunity to live abroad again in the near future. Perhaps, I will return to Ghana with a ship full of purchased books for consumption and to be given as gifts, lol! I also have an ambition of owning a bookstore. My wish might just come true. But first, I need to add to the collection of books of this world. So help me God.  

I would want my children to develop a love for reading much earlier than I did. I know an older woman in my church who taught her grandchildren to read by the age of three years. When she told me this, I exclaimed, “Wow, three years!” Then I understood why her grandchildren were proficient readers among their peers in my Sunday School class and why her own children, who are my peers, had been avid readers when we were growing up. I’ll need to go back to learn some skills from this woman on how she accomplished this in her family. In recent years, I’ve started building a collection of children books. I try to select them with care, so that I can answer questions when they come up, but you never know, kids always ask the most unsuspecting questions, don’t they?

I’m grateful to my mom, who sparked the fire for my reading craze. Yaaay, it’s my hobby now! Although I did not catch it earlier, I’m beginning to see why it is not healthy to have an appreciable understanding of one’s own local literature and I believe that is one on the things my dad had been trying to teach me in my teen years. I’m always amazed at how much my dad reads despite his impossibly busy schedule. I’m also grateful for my sister, her personal library became mine in those early years and I was never for want of books or have never been because I still get to borrow her books.

Now, I love reading!
Lady Akofa.