A Personal Story Of Change (1)

I started reading after I met one of the most prodigious lawyers in Nigeria. He is one of my mentors till date. Before I met him I could hardly read a book from cover to cover no matter how small the size, especially if it had no pictures in it to illustrate its content. It was that bad! But after visiting this mentor of mine's personal library, my life changed forever. I saw more books in a man's personal library than most public institutions have. Oh! I was stupefied. This singular experience became a wake-up call for me to start reading.

Today, I have read books without number, and bought more books than clothes and shoes all my life till date. I remember buying only one shirt during my NYSC year- because my highest spending during the period was expended on books. In fact, by the time I was leaving Ekiti State- my state of posting- for Lagos, I was packing four-and-a-half large boxes of books into the car's boot as against only one luggage of clothes! The books numbered well over five hundred copies. I drove out of Ekiti State that bright afternoon in high ecstasy!

Now I have become an incurable book addict. I even give books out now and somehow get a lot more in return. But I have spent more from my own pocket to acquire the books that I now own than I was given. But maybe I'm just starting in comparison to people like my highly revered mentor and the great Thomas Jefferson, who was also a great collector of books. His collection was so fine that it eventually became the nucleus of the Library of Congress, after the original holdings of the Library were destroyed by fire in 1814. I love books!

 Genesis Onomiwo

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Tuesday, May 16th 2017.