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| Traveling on the main road into the Dandora slum to train some young people - the photos chart our journey |
1. There is a secret trail of books meant to inspire and
enlighten you. Find that trail.
2. Read outside your own nation, colour, class, gender.
3. Read the books your parents hate.
4. Read the books your parents love.
5. Have one or two authors that are important, that speak
to you; and make their works your secret passion.
6. Read widely, for fun, stimulation, escape.
7. Don’t read what everyone else is reading. Check them out
later, cautiously.
8. Read what you’re not supposed to read.
9. Read for your own liberation and mental freedom.
10. Books are like mirrors.
Don’t just read the words. Go into the mirror. That is where the real secrets
are. Inside. Behind. That’s where the gods dream, where our realities are born.
10½ Read the world. It is
the most mysterious book of all.
I just discovered these a few days ago on
the wall of a toilet in a delightful new coffee shop near where we live in
Nairobi. (Toilets often have good sources of light reading)
Jane and I try and read all the time if we
can. The greatest joy is reading out loud to one another. Reading out loud
makes me slow down, to enjoy the words twice over. Some books we have
even read twice over – literally. John Green's The Fault In Our Stars is one
such book (I’m hesitant to see the film –only about 2 or 3 films EVER have hit
the magic of the books they come from). Richard Rohr’s Falling Upwards is
another ‘second time round’ read.
What else has been part of our journey, our
secret trail over these months in Nairobi? The Cellist Of Sarajevo was simply
breathtaking in the quality of its writing and the understated capture of that
famous siege. Elizabeth Gilbert’s (Eat
Pray Love lady) book Committed is a book that should be giving to every
couple considering marriage. It is the most honest, wide-ranging exploration of
the topic and it’s written with such depth and humour. Al Gore’s The
Future is for anyone in any position of leadership who needs to ‘read the
world’. Rabbi Joshua Abraham Herschel
opened my eyes to the simple beauty of the Mitzvot – the small acts of kindness
that put this often-crazy world back together again.
Who are my ‘one or two authors”? It has to be John Le
Carre and Kazuo Ishiguro. Every time we pass through airports I glance up at
the Airport Exclusives’ in WH Smiths looking out for the latest from both of
these guys. Gary Haugen’s latest book The Locust Effect was a challenging
reminder to keep on doing what we are doing here - “why the end of poverty requires the end of violence”.
Nairobi has
plenty of both!
Brene Brown’s book Daring Greatly did a great work in us -
subtitled “How the courage to be
vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent and lead”. It left us
knowing that ‘we are enough’ and that ‘it is not the critic who counts, but the
person who is actually in the arena.”
The joy of reading is what the books do
in us both, the conversations that they spawn, the learning they give, the
world they open us inside ourselves, the new lens they give us to look at our
world.
"Books are like
mirrors. Don’t just read the words. Go into the mirror.
That is where the real
secrets are. Inside. Behind.
That’s where the gods dream, where our realities
are born"
- TW
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| Arriving in the Dandora slum |
