Summer Reading -- Home coming

I am so excited! And it feels like home-coming after a long time. Yes, after a long time I finished reading a book cover to cover and with the same energy, I am almost half way on the second book from the three books that were brought to me recently from Hager Bet (Homeland).

The book I just finished is "KaYehut na KeSemahut' a memoir of Ras Imru Haile Selassie. I will have a say about some of its content in the coming days but what I can say in general is: what a powerful testimony from someone who grew up with Lij Tafari Mekonnen (later Emperor Haile Selassie) and who saw & participated in major political developments of Ethiopia closely throughout Haile Selassie's rise to power & his fall in the end.  The book I am starting now is Fitawrari/Bejirond Tekle Hawaryat's 'Ye-Hiwote TariK' (autobiography). I was told by a friend that it will be more fun read than the one I just finished. So far it reads like fiction. What an amazing real life story. I knew the third one Fiqru Kidane's 'Ye-Piasa Lij' will be a delightful reading.

When the book came out, I knew how it was sold like a hot cake and  even on its third  or fourth reprint is still in big demand. Actually, the reason why I wanted to read this book last was because I reasoned if I start with this book, it would be hard to read books which dealt with hard and serious political matters after it. I did not want to start and stop somewhere in the middle like many books that are still sitting on my bed side for months. Since I was introduced to the Internet back in the 90s, my reading habits have changed.  It has been a while since I read a book from cover to cover.




Actually, the last book I "read" until the end is 'Cutting for Stone' by Abraham Verghese.
Even that, I started by reading one that I borrowed from the library but finished it by listening to its audio-book version while driving to and after work.  I enjoyed the audio-book experience. Since then, when some one tells me you should read this or that book, I ask or try to find out if audio-book version is available. The reason is, I am afraid I will start it but may not be able to finish it.  I was not like this before.  I was a book lover.  In the beginning as a kid growing in Ethiopia, my social life revolved around soccer and it was through soccer that I was able to make several friends. Just before joining college though, I was introduced to reading fiction books in English and in my young adult age books became the means by which I built friendships.  Some who have known me since then tell me that the mental image they have about me of those youthful days is - me carrying a book under my arms. The reason I was mostly seen with books is not because I read books fast one after another.  No, it was mainly because it took me a long time to finish reading one.  Amongst my book reader friends, I was considered a slow reader.  Taking a long time to finish a book however has always allowed me to digest every element of the story and/or to savor it.  I have a saying: Slow reading is like slow eating.  The slower you take it, the more enjoyment you will get out of it.  Now it is that enjoyment - the pleasure of savoring the stories that stays with me after I finish a book; and if I might add, which I miss the most.

Internet has spoiled me.  Getting used to information which come in pieces, now the sight of a small size book (let alone a voluminous one) gives me a sense of fatigue.  It seems, I lack the patience of going thorough pages after pages. Cyber hopping (jumping from one website to another; from one portal to another; from one news-feed on Facebook wall to another) has become my favorite pastime. But all this time, I have been missing the pleasure I used to get from reading a book entirely.  Now with these books, I am back to reading again.  This summer then will be a summer of reading.  I am glad I am getting my groove back.