It’s World Book Day! Here’s What Our Staff Is (Or Is Not) Reading

It’s World Book Day! This day is a global initiative promoting reading for pleasure, author engagement, and literacy. Adventures From the Bedrooms of African Women is all about pleasure and storytelling, but we also know that the best storytellers are avid readers! We thought it would a fun exercise to ask each other what we’ve recently picked up off the shelves, what’s captivating our interests, or – in this season of hyper-productivity – is there even time to settle in with a good book?

I just picked up a copy of “The Art of War” by Niccolo Machiavelli. I was hesitant to add the title to my library because of its close association with incel culture, but it was on sale, and the cover is dripped in my favourite colour (red). I’ve only gotten a few pages in, but Machiavelli did not seem to live a very happy life. He was tortured by the Medici and then spent the rest of his life trying to prove his usefulness to them. The great strategists of the Matriarchy would never.  – Malaka

While I have barely had time to breathe, let alone read, due to very tight schedules and life just doing what it does best, I do pick up Richard Templar’s “The Rules of Management” every now and then and use his nuggets as a blueprint whenever I hit a bit of a snag in general management at work. It’s been very insightful to be honest. I’d recommend! 

On the leisure side of things, I’m about to start – and hope to follow through with – “Gates of Fire”, a novel set in ancient Sparta by Steven Pressfield. Wish me luck! – Your resident Editor-in-Chief 😉 

Imperial Desires: Dissident Sexualities and Colonial Literature.

One day, I decided to read all I could find about homosexuality and queerness within Africa. If you’re from this part of the world, all you hear is how un-African it is to be queer. Then I also started hearing of how very African it was to be queer in pre-colonial times. I found myself using this argument without actually saying much: it dawned on me that I had to have my own insight into this and not simply regurgitate someone else’s knowledge on the matter as mine. 

I started collecting links to drives on literature that focused on queerness in Africa and in general, and this was one of the e-books in a vast collection.

Growing up, I loved literature. Unfortunately (and fortunately), most of my early reads were by white authors, even in school. So I thought, “Oh, let me look at what has been going on behind my naive mind.”

I remember reading the first chapter on Robinson Crusoe and his suppression of desire and thinking “wow this is NOT how i remembered this book”. And then you go on into more chapters, more insightful breakdowns of colonial literature and then you realise, bro, THE GAY TRULY WAS EVERYWHERE! And so was the homophobia because throughout this book, there are a bunch of authors or systems that sought to suppress (their) homosexuality and queerness. 

Looking forward to finishing this journey. – Miss Fu

I’ve lost my reading mojo for a while now, and it’s been hard to get back into it. In trying to find my way back, I’ve started reading articles on Substack, and I must say, women are brilliant writers.

It is a space where you get challenged by different creatives’ thought processes, and it is really enlightening. You would be amazed at how deeply they think. Like I always say, it takes a certain kind of mind to put words together in a way that really drives home a point.

If you ever find your way there, you can start with Adesola Oni-Doings. A particularly interesting piece from her is “Girl, we are tired of the nepo influencers.”

Another one I enjoyed was by Omo Igbo, “TikTok NG: The Concerning Rise of Anti-Intellectualism Among Nigerian Youth.” That title alone already says a lot.

So yeah, until I get my zeal to read back, I’ll be on this side of the platform. – Miracle

What are you reading? Let us know in the comments below!