Books! Books! Books!

My name is Susan Walala formerly Susan Mukindia. The new name signifies a change in status and part of my exciting journey. I am a book enthusiast, a bookaholic and a true fanatic… it’s really as bad as it sounds because whereas most husbands hold their wives hands at clothing stores, mine holds mine at bookstores. As a young child I always knew that I wanted to be a lawyer. I suspect this was because my mother would always make me read the newspapers to her after work. I do not want to age myself but although news of political figures like the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Mwai Kibaki and Kenneth Matiba filled the newspapers of that age, the exploits of one lawyer, James Orengo, made me want to be a lawyer. I would read about him and the activist in me would be all fired up. Not forgetting the immutable pleasure of reading Wahome Mutahi’s column religiously. “Whispers” resonates to this very day.

The story I will tell is about my fascination with books and the phases of my life through books. Growing up in the leafy suburbs of Kawangware, my mother emphasised on two things. One was the importance of reading and the second the value of discipline. If you’re wondering which of the two took precedence, it was discipline. She would always say that one can have all the education in the world but without discipline they would amount to nothing. Needless to say, there were consequences for indiscipline that led to broken bones and such like things that, though nurturing, are painful to relive and may be taken out of context in this piece. 

We had a neighbour, a young student lawyer at the time who further emphasised the need for reading and cemented my love for knowledge. To this day I remember this Meru quote he told me “Kaba uthome kiorere ki mwiri”which roughly translates to “you’d rather read and let it rot while in the body.”

I attended Catholic Parochial Primary School. The choice of school was strategic on my mother’s part as it was near her place of work and that made sure that I never missed a day of school. I’d try and fake a morning headache as an excuse not to attend school and mum would be like “it’s even better for you to be at school so if anything happens to you I’ll be able to respond in good time”. I grew to love books and this is the one thing I can say for sure has been my saving grace. This phase of my life had some wonderful books like Kaka sungura na wenzake. If anyone here has this book I’d buy at whatever amount just so my son can have the same experience. We’d share some great books with my classmates including SweetValey High, R.L Stine, Adventures of Tintin, Asterix and Obelix, Archie, Betty and Veronica these were beautiful times.  We’d also attend an annual book fair at the Sarit Centre that showcased all the books a child my age could ever desire… I wonder if they still have book fairs. My younger sister tells me that as a child she only remembers me with my nose in a book, I still haven’t figured whether to feel sad over my lost childhood or be happy that I turned out to be a fairly well rounded sane woman.

High school at Buruburu Girls (Buru Mambao) was a hormone filled phase—seriously— half of us might not even remember the four years which we thought would never end. We’d take turns to read romance books which frankly I have no recollection who managed to sneak them to school. I blame the “sneakers” of those books for my poor grades in math — I mean who had the presence of mind to do equations when sculpted and exotic Mills and Boon and Judith McNaught characters enticingly lurked just a page away.  I remember one in particular—Paradise by Judith McNaught— that was so epic that I had to reread it last year to confirm whether it was just teenage hormones at play.....It  still had the same effect on me (I hope my husband is not reading this). As if reading these romance titles was not enough, we had a book club “mwitu” where our classmate would retell the stories in the most dramatic way possible. For Paradise, her rendition of Matt Ferrell’s marriage proposal to Meredith Bankroft left us all weak in the knees…… “if you’ll kiss me back I’ll give you six million dollars, if you’ll go to bed with me tonight..I’ll give you the world..but if you move in with me …I’ll give you Paradise on a gold platter”. If the people who gave Lupita an Oscar should had been there that first Oscar would have come home way much sooner.

I thank God we turned out okay especially you Sash madam editor who shall write my autobiography one day. It was not all romance in this phase, I still read some John Grisham, you know….in line with my dreams of being a lawyer. The set books we read also left a mark. In particular, I loved Africa kills her sun by Ken Saro Wiwa. The story oozed with the kind of effortless satire most writers struggle to emulate. I surprisingly loved Walenisi which I found quite mystical. I remember feeling the loss when the author Katama Mkangi passed away. I had hopes that he’d one day explain to me what that was about, my creative brain thought it was about aliens but really?!!! I also read Margaret Ogola’s The River and the Source (I reread it this year) and the Achebe’s epic Things fall apart. To prepare me for womanhood my mother gave me Mariama Ba’s So long a letter which I absolutely love. The meaning and impact of the book only fully became revealed to me not when I read again in campus but last year as a wife and a mother and wow!!!

In campus I was “Oriental” so to speak. I looked East from the first time I read Robin Sharma’s The Monk who sold his Ferrari (I want to go to Tibet and meditate with the monks and may be then I shall be illuminated). Life then was a fine balance between parties and books. This balance is key because you really do not want to be the 40 year old at the back of the club instead of being hard at work building an empire. 

It was a good night in Eldoret, one of those nights that have the potential of turning into the nights to remember and my good friend Cathy  was excited about going out. The plot didn’t last long when she stumbled into boring me, the introvert. She asked me to get ready for the night out but I wasn’t budging, I was reading a book. This sparked a rant about how boring I was. Finally, she decided to see what book I was reading anyway, only to see Analects of Confucius ‘what the hell is that?!!!!!’ The look of horror is still imprinted on my mind. My obsession with the book stands to this day. As an idealist it was the perfect book for me. What with all the ideals we should all aspire to and words like benevolent, magnanimous, filial piety, the superior man vs the inferior man. Who doesn’t want to be the superior/noble man?  I still take this book out to remind me of my commitment to being a superior man whenever I feel wronged. These were the years that I read the Art of war, The book of five rings, The 48 laws of power, The art of seduction, The alchemist, Eleven minutes The pilgrimage, Memoirs of Ninon d’lenclos, How to win friends and influence people, The secret, Think and Grow rich, Chicken soup for the soul, Who moved my cheese, Act like a lady think like a man, Why men marry b***hes. Okay…you now know that I was going through a heartbreak while reading some of these). The books are good especially for such times, they make you strong and I highly recommend them for all women. 

At 25 I had a major quarter life crisis that brought me to my knees, anyone who knows me knows that I am very ambitious. My dreams and plans scare me at times. At 21 I had set a goal of owning a house and a car by the time I was 25 (I’m that kind of person, I set goals for every five years)…. never mind that I was a student and had no source of income. So here I was at 25 with a baby living at my mother in law’s house with no sense of direction whatsoever and I nearly had a breakdown. This was a phase where I required all the strength of a woman and so I read books like 50 shades of grey…..I did. The two words I would describe myself with are confident individualism. I believe in being authentic and true to myself against all odds and in being confident about it. I believe in Tracy Chapman music. I believe in strong women because throughout life I’ve been surrounded by them. I believe in the girl child and “as for my girls I will raise them to think they breathe fire.” I believe in taking the lead and taking the initiative to change that which we cannot accept and that is why this phase has been marked with books like Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg, Influence by Robert Cialdini, Big Short by Michael Lewis, Tribes by Seth Godin, The Jewish Phenomenon, The leader who had no title by Robin Sharma, How to stop worrying and start living by Dale Carnegie, Nice girls don’t get the corner office, The animal farm by George Orwell, The seven habits of highly effective people by Steve Covey, See you at the top by Zig Ziglar, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, Manuscript found in Accra and Winner stands alone by Paulo Coelho, The Godfather by Mario Puzo, Rules for radicals by Saul Alinsky, The kite runner by Khaled Hosseini, To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee, Drive by Daniel H. Pink, The One minute Manager by Spencer Johnson, The Prophet by Khalil Gibran and the Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

Finally, we all know the five love languages; I’ll state them for those who don’t: quality time, acts of service, physical touch, gifts and words of affirmation. My love language is books It’s a secret joke among my friends that if I love you I will always give you a book and the  greatest gift you can give to me is a book…I’ll always love it. My husband recently bought me a Kindle and loaded it with over 200 books. Guess how much I love him. My sister  willingly gave me her credit card details for me to buy books (my husband says a silent prayer for her every night!). Guess how much I love her. Recently and courtesy of my best friend I started trying out this extroversion thing, you know….the one you get to talk to people and actually enjoy it. I’ve talked to more people and I’ve noticed that most do not read as much….why? No time…How?!! It’s only a chapter a day. Anyway I decided I shall be reviewing the books I read on this page, at least, in the very least, to spark your interest in them and possibly lead to you enjoying them as much as I have or hope to have. You’re welcome to take this literary journey with me. 

A brain is a good thing to waste in books!!