A Thousand Lives

I have clear memories of the time my mother taught me how to write. It was long before I started school. We’d be in her office, and she would hand me pieces of paper with dots that outlined letters, and I was supposed to connect them. Over time, each letter was made of fewer and fewer dots. I cannot imagine what sort of patience she had.

Reading came to me more readily than writing did. I’m left-handed, and western calligraphy was designed with right-handed people in mind (I would totally own an Arabic class). As soon as my reading skills were good enough, my mother set me loose upon comic books. I had nearly every issue of Asterix, Lucky Luke and Tintin.

In high school, I encountered story books with not much in the way of pictures. Rather than feeling like Gaston (failing to understand this reference means your childhood may have a missing piece), I discovered this was better. A picture may be worth a thousand words – jury’s still out on that – but it is a frozen thing, static and immutable. A thousand words could evoke a million shifting ideas, depending on the person that encounters them.

That realisation was the drop that broke the dam. A good chunk of my allowance was dedicated to book purchase and exchange, and I became more indiscriminate in my reading as time went by. On the bright side, this helped with school, as I would read my textbooks for fun along with any science journal I could find. On the not-so-bright side, I was quite unprepared when I had a run-in with my uncles’ *Ahem!* spy stories.

I began to look for bigger books. Now, as men so fervently (and naively) believe, size doesn’t matter. This is true in literature as well – just compare Narnia to Inheritance. But I have found, especially when my means are limited, that I like to prolong the pleasure. And THAT concludes the 'innuendo' section of this article.

My first heavy-duty read was The Count of Monte Cristo. I loved every page. Alexandre Dumas wrote a lot, and wrote well. He probably did little else. I imagine him permanently connected to a feeding tube and a catheter, taking time off only to sire yet another writing Alexandre Dumas. No, seriously, that's actually true. Or maybe he cloned himself for increased productivity.

Dumas sparked my interest in historical figures and event. Visiting the past eventually led me in the realm of mythology, and from there it was only a small step to the genre that I enjoy most. Fantasy was unique in that its many themes resonated with me so strongly it was like finally finding my place in the world (nothing like a good exaggeration to get a point across). The epic contests between Good and Evil mirrored my own inner struggles. The various ‘magic’ systems obeyed clearly defined rules rather than being just some convenient plot device – really helpful when it comes to suspension of disbelief.

I got a glimpse of heaven the day I entered The Book Den in Windhoek. Back then, it was still situated in Gutenberg Plaza, and you could stay in there for hours, lost among the shelves, or seated on the floor, turning pages. There were books for all tastes, all ages, and all walks of life. Leaving felt like waking up from one of those sweet, sweet dreams we have every once in a while. Broke or not, I found myself there very often. I have looked for something similar over here to no avail. I hear South-Africa has even grander book stores (true, if the CNA store at the airport in Johannesburg is any indication), and I hope one day to visit them, but our firsts do hold a special place, do they not?

So here I am, having consumed hundreds of books by dozens of authors, having produced a couple of manuscript s I will keep on polishing until they reflect my satisfied face back at me, and thinking up blog articles I hope will inspire someone to… I dunno, pick a passion and run with it, maybe. I know I got mine and I feel like a fish in water nurturing it. To have had your emotions tugged at by words on a page, to have felt the joys and sorrows of multiple characters, to have received authors’ wisdom, to have lived a thousand lives and learnt a little from each… Try and top that.