Lisetta Woluchem and the author, Stanley Jack
By Lisetta Woluchem (Chinaacheru.com)
No experience is ever wasted. An experience, once gotten goes a long way sometime in future.
I’m what you’ll call a collector, but while most people collect antiques, I collect books. I’m interested in anything that’s not my text book. I can stay awake all night reading a novel. I’m studious like that.
One day, I went to see a friend, who’s also an ardent and vast reader, and he gave me some books, amongst which was Good To Go.
Good to Go is a book written by a certain, Stanley Jack. I had never heard of him before that day, but it was a book so I thought I would give it a shot.
I flipped through a few pages, had a faint idea of what the book was all about, but decided to keep it until I’d read a couple from my already long pile of unread books.
But on July 22nd, I got a call from this person asking that I go attend a book reading party the next day.
What on is a book reading party?
A book reading party? What in God’s name was that? I had never heard of it, talk more of attending one.
I went to see him, and he gave me a brief rundown of what to expect at a book party with some advice that I read a thing or two from the book.
Even though every fibre of my being wanted me to scream NO! I didn’t because I wanted to attend and see what it was like.
First of all, I viewed it as an opportunity, and then an experience.
I also didn’t have any reasonable thing to do on Saturday, so what the hell, right?
Attending the book reading party
The book party was slated for noon and being one with an illness of late coming, I had to go with a friend that was supposed to ‘keep me in check’.
We did everything on time, but thanks to traffic, we got to Bookville by Mummy B road, in Port Harcourt, the venue of the event at ten minutes past noon.
Bookville is a bookshop, so you can imagine my surprise when I got there and saw about thirty chairs with some already occupied.
I didn’t say a word, I wrote my name in a register and took my seat.
We waited until 1pm, and finally this ‘party’ started.
As with almost every gathering in Nigeria, it started with an opening prayer, and guests were introduced.
I heard I was coming for a book reading party and a lot of pictures went through my mind.
In my mind’s eye there was going to be a DJ, perhaps dancers and all that. The only imagination I got right was the presence of an MC and a comedian.
The editor of the book, Stanley Jack was called upon to give a brief summary of the book.
The comedian took to the stage and cracked people up a bit. After all it is said that all work and no play….
The author was then introduced and called upon to introduce his book.
After that, it was time for contributions and questions.
My reading the book actually paid off because I had a couple of questions to ask, and I also had the privilege of having the author himself answer my questions.
I felt important to be in such an educative gathering. In all my imaginations, never had I thought that I’ll get to view a book from the eyes of the author!
A guest in the gathering made a few contributions, and I couldn’t agree more that Good To Go is a book everybody must read.
It gives you a better view of everything and life in general. It broadens your knowledge of education and throws better light to the ever increasing hype of going to school.
Time up! All due protocols had been observed, and the closing prayer had been said. It was time for autographs.
I have tons of books, but none that’s been autographed by the author himself.
I still can’t decipher why it’s called a book reading party, but whatever the reason might be, there’s actually a need for it.
Maybe, the fact that there was a comedian cracking people up, or the fact that there was small chops and drinks. I really do not know.
However, I know I achieved a lot on Saturday, July 23, 2016.
Apart from having my book signed by an actual author, or getting to view a book from the eyes of the writer, it actually felt good to be in a gathering of intellectuals.
After attending the book reading party, I got to learn anew that an experience is actually a tool to help one through life.
