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I recently read Pat Conroy’s “My Reading Life” and Joe Queenan’s brilliant book “One for the Books” on matters bookish. I was especially intrigued by Queenan’s book – full of barbs and bouquets in equal measure. Several times I thought he was describing me in eerie detail, a feeling I quickly overcame. I was guilty of all his don’ts, but my saving grace was that I am also guilty of the good stuff as well.
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Abdinasir Amin with Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah. (Photo courtesy Abdinasir Amin)
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Describing his reading habits for instance, he says, “I read books – mostly non-fiction – for at least two hours a day, but I also spend two hours a day reading newspapers and magazines, gathering material for my work which largely consists of ridiculing nincompoops and scoundrels.”
Well, that’s me I thought, except my work does not involve reading to ridicule “nincompoops and scoundrels,” although I have soldiered through dreary, very poorly written 100-page technical reports on public health and journal articles on the feeding habits of theAnopheles gambiae ss, that bad-ass insect that is the cause of malaria, death and disability in many parts of Africa.
On his favourite reading places and times, Joe says, “I read anywhere and everywhere, except in the bathroom, as I find this unspeakably vulgar and disrespectful to the person whose work one is reading, unless one is reading something appalling.” Well true again, although I have read some really great stuff in the bathroom!Continued
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