internet and tech are both a blessing and a curse to the reading culture. i saw a series of novels on the terrorism based drama 24. I Think we go back and forth and as much as tech is concerned we can only let it be and use it for our gain. The more things change the more they remain the same.

Yeah the unwritten stories!!!what a pity. Obama used a book as a campaign strategy u know! i wonder what more can be accomplished in our writing and reading in that matter. As Kenyans we have issues that can make the publishing world rumble and maybe uncover what others are trying so hard to hide from the world.

I challenge all those who still have to pull up their socks on reading(i have) doing 2 good books a month, finished reading Mandela’s bio. My next read is ‘Dreams from my father’.

My take on the reading culture and what ha occassioned it in the country os that it is never pursued as an end by itslef. For examnle when was the last time you lloked through your library and fpund a book by Jane Austen and found your slef after say three chapters so deepeley engrossed that the rest of the wo0rld did not seemt o exist. Now we prefer to have book clubs!!! of all ideas I think that is the most absurd. But thats me. There are issues of Policy that you have raised and the need to read to come up with the solutions to these challenges. That may well be fine but is it consistent with the thinking thst ahs gione around it? I think aauthors should seek to undertnst the issue in detail before writing as they ought for a widewr audience. It wioll require a long period of investigation but I believ that it would be worth it othrwis on masy as wll writ for th nspapr wher words such as corruption and Drcaonian are bundid around without being xplind and how exactly thy fit int th narrativ ar supposd to idntify. Private Mobile Libraries cpuld also be a good idea of diversifying readership in the country. Finally would b writrs I see so many unwritten books in th newspapers everyday..Ernie something!!!! .

Teddy Muriu.

The veracity of the content inherent in this recollection deserves some deletions to preclude the opportunities for resuscitation, burial and alleged reincarnation.

Joan draws from the emerging collective consciousness – a shared sentiment that the reading culture in Kenya is drooping. While I too can evoke the self-guilt of the authors read, bemoaning this stereotype demeans the fortunes of Kenya, particularly “after the vote”.

In extension, the ‘Y’ generation concedes to the notion that the intelligent are immune to propaganda and cannot be manipulated. On the other hand - so alleges ‘Y’ generation; those with a partial loss of the critical faculties (deficient intellectual powers) are prone to a premature foreclosure of alternatives either for lack of education or being badly bred readers. Didn’t both sides take sides or some just sat on the fence having no experience of war?

Neither the 68% literacy by Prof. Sam Ongeri nor books nor education had a play on post-election Kenya. The rudiments would be youth, religion, sect and there subsequent appendages.

The wry description as ‘a great deal of truth’ what besets reading about wars and woes, character and integrity, stains with blind spots across time the heritage handed down by education. It does so in three ways.

First, it heightens the attitude of writers (not being read). Dozens are collegiate instructors whose publications repel the very curricula they quench from. Be it policy or sheer academic dissension, this throws doubt on their legitimacy to woe avid consumers of that written word and stem thematic stigma in publishing.

Secondly, it conjures the victorious hierarchy of fictitious roles and celebrated biographies as true embodiments in a society at the peripheries of evolution. Going by history, society is refined by rituals and conflict is part of that finesse. Does the cultivation of a legend attain a drab existence in a reader or add to the advocacy for realigning the docile crowds? Maybe the aggressive proponents in post election chaos had read epics and were moved by the epitomes of Hitler or Martin Luther.

Lastly, while it is overly trustworthy to dissect the nominal role of syllabi with contrast for contention, I remind myself that the usefulness of education is in the student, not with the issues that demand redress in the crudest way.

No doubt that pluralistic Asia has leaped in technology. Just how much has that to do with reading? Anthropology documents kaizen, which is a value based philosophy credited of this. You will be amazed how much of it is written and transmitted via books.

Assuming Ngugi wa Thiong’o was to hold a political office, or write a title in the present Kenya would you endorse his ideas or borrow his insight? I would ignore either for one reason. His is a fictitious world where reality is distorted.

As a writer, it affects me when my words do not arouse a following. Again, setting limits on discourse is a discipline that confers both leadership and influential participation in the community. However, it renders me less and less stoic to realize that my work is no different from the political instigators; that out of my surface research, my country is forever in the bathroom vomiting those edifying rumors: that I am the slough that society wades and kneads through.

I will vote for education before books.

Okello J.