Fall in love with reading.

I used to teach.

As a teacher, one is required to read and to keep reading so as to be immediately relevant to the students and the subject in which one professes to be well grounded.

Reading was infused in my blood the day I gasped for my first breath of air. I grew up in the adventurous world of the Hardy boys:  the heart thudding and pulsating romance of Mills and Boons: the spell binding world of James Hardly Chase: the mysterious universe of Enid Blyton.

In my teenage years, I immersed myself in the spy world of Robert Ludlum: the enticing words coined by Jeffrey Archer: the mouth-watering excitement in Sidney Sheldon's novels: the deadly mix of the African and the emotion of love spelled out in the Pacesetter editions from Macmillan.

As a young adult, I fully appreciated the 'song school' by Okot P' Bitek. I will be forever amazed at his uncanny ability to speak, with deep insight, from the foot- fall of each of his characters. Song of Malaya, is one of those poems that should be a must read for those who profess to speak for the down trodden.

In the larger African world, I revelled in Kikuyu world of Ngugi wa Thiongo. The anti apartheid literature of apartheid South Africa was both blood cuddling and revolutionary. The West African culture and her attempts to resist colonialism are encapsulated in the words that spew out of Chinua Achebe's pen. The rumbling roar of Wole Soyinka keeps echoing in my brain.

The English classics continue to excite me. Shakespeare and his intense grasp of various human emotions leaves me dumbfounded every time my mind has intercourse with his work. Charles Dickens unique ability to describe human conditions leaves me powerless to this day.

Then there was poetry. My imagination was ignited and my engine always vibrates with an excitement that palpitates with the precision of a drumbeat major.

I must redirect my train of thought, lest I get lost in words. The whole purpose of this collection of words is to urge you to marry into the world of books. Like many marriages that are known only to me, this marriage will come with a couple of advantages.

With every book that you read, comes a brand new world. Your narrow world will be enlarged when you commit to the words on the pages. You will explore and understand worlds you never knew, you never knew.

You will become a better you, especially if you engage in the world of self-help books. Human beings are in the constant race to know and be better. The individual, who invests, reads and applies the knowledge in such books, is halfway through the race. Charles W. Elio echoed a profound truth when he said,  "Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers."

Reading increases the understanding of the rules of life. For one to adapt, adopt and accommodate into society better, one must be aware of the house rules that make up life. To be successful in life, one must know the unique combination that unlocks the door. Reading lays that combination on your plate.

For you to achieve anything in life, you must first do that thing. To be able to do that which is in your power to do, you must first learn it. To learn it, you must first read about it. In essence, reading is the one and only ingredient that will enable you to prepare a banquet of your life.

Books are the richest collection of wealth in the world. The experiences therein are priceless. You can propel yourself any which way, once you succumb to the infinite resource that is available to all that can see.

Reading will boost your imagination in ways that will astound and excite you. You will come into contact with a world that declares that the word impossible is only found in the dictionary of fools.

May Cupid flood you with a torrent of love,

And cause you to succumb,

To the love of reading.