READING. Part 1

Good day all and welcome to my blog. Perhaps the best way to start is to talk about Reading, and here is my own story. My earliest memory about myself is that my family lived in the slums of Lagos Island, precisely on Obun Eko street, not far from the palace of the Oba of Lagos. My father worked for one of the establihments in the nearby Lagos Island wharf called Ehingbeti. Some of you are not old enough to know all these. Later my father relocated to Ibadan then sent for us when I was 6 or 7 years old. He was determined to bring us up different from what we were in the slums of so he put us in one of the best schools in Ibadan. Not only that, he enrolled us at the children's section of the British Council Library located only a walking distance from our home. I went there very often and read from the large stock of educative and adventurous books voraciously. It was also a lending library so I took books home and since I always returned the books to time, I was allowed to take more than one book on each visit. My favourite books were on boys like Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Pinoccio etc. but I also took particular interest in books on games, nature and adventure. I loved books on jigsaw puzzles.

   The interest I built in reading paid off for me. I developed a keen sense of imagination and insight. Later in secondary school, I became proficient in essay writing and soon won a national price in English Composition. I was proud to be invited to Lagos among others for my prize. I was given a lot of books and I busied myself reading more and more, a boost to my imagination and knowledge. I left school with distinction in English Language and a disappointing credit in English Literature. I ended up studying in the U.K. and became a Medical Laboratory Scientist by profession, but my interest in reading and writing  never waned. Rather, my access to great bookshops and stores helped more. Today I have written six books and still counting. All these resulted from my developed interest in the reading culture even though I did not major in English Language. One of my favourites was the Readers' Digest, an international educative, informative as well as entertaining periodical, still in publication abroad.

    That was my humble beginning. See you later as we continue Part 2 of this series on Reading. God bless you richly.

Olusegun Ojosipe-Isaac

olusegunisaac2018@gmail.com