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What are you reading today?

Started by Muhsin, December 06, 2007, 10:57:20 AM

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Muhsin

Salam,

What an endorsement, Ummutameem! Allah Sarki, I thought the lady was just praised to the skies. I'll inshaAllah start it tomorrow on my way to Katsina. I've a wedding to attend, inshaAllah, there, 2:00PM.

You don't get Daily Trust daily? Gaskiya this is a great challenge to the paper's distributors; in a city like Lagos but their papers don't reach daily? They really ought to do something ASAP.

I didn't say anything like ThisDay isn't or is academic. I rather say I can't recall when last I read it, thereof I shall only lie if I comment about it, for I know nothing.

And, concerning the summary issue: we surely will benefit alotta from it. Please do it.

Special thanks for your contribution aboard this child-board, Ummutameem.

Get to know [and remember] Allah in prosperity & He will know  [and remember] you in adversity.

gogannaka

Muhsin ai a Kano ma many of the papers are a day late.
Rashin early morning flight to Kano affects the distribution.
Thisday is full of useless and uninteresting articles.
Watarana kuma you find out that you just bought pictures of dead people (obituary).
The paper is biased against muslims and northern Nigeria.
Chan da yawar su.

I want to start reading either arrow of God or Anthills of the savannah.
Surely after suffering comes enjoyment

ummutameem

@ ggnk, finally! a kindered spirit! someone has agreed wit me on 'thisday'. my thots exactly! i read it because i cant stand d sun, punch or guardian, so in d absence of my fav daily trust, i read thisday, bcos i have to read something! it is a southern paper to d core!

hav fun wit ur books, wat are they about?

@ muhsin, anytime n journey mercies

Muhsin

Quote from: gogannaka on May 29, 2010, 12:26:13 AM
Muhsin ai a Kano ma many of the papers are a day late.
Rashin early morning flight to Kano affects the distribution.

I never knew, GGNK; and I think that's because I have never bought any papers other than Daily Trust. It was even Weekly Trust I used to buy before I got a laptop. All now I do is to open a story, specifically a Column and save it. Have a particular folder for the Trust's news items.

Early morning or late morning flight is your business; Muhsin has never been aboard plane. LOL ;D

QuoteThisday is full of useless and uninteresting articles.
Watarana kuma you find out that you just bought pictures of dead people (obituary).
The paper is biased against muslims and northern Nigeria.
Chan da yawar su.

Nikuma contrary to that I found some interesting stuff in the paper, specifically on the Back Page Xtra. I actually had never read even that prior to our talks with Ummutameen (on this OP). There among their columnists is one fellow, Yusuph Olaniyonu; his write-ups are quite unbiased. Yet I think that's because he's a Muslim.

QuoteI want to start reading either arrow of God or Anthills of the savannah.

Truthfully speaking I don't think you'll enjoy any of these novels: the latter remains Achebe's most advanced and hence difficult novel, while the former happens to be something like a sequel to the Things Fall Apart. But it (Arrow of God) has its own  sequel, i.e. No Longer At Ease, if I recall aright. Any way, they are worth a reading stuff.
Get to know [and remember] Allah in prosperity & He will know  [and remember] you in adversity.

ummutameem

ive read some interesting stuff, viz;
a.one night stand-cindy kirk
b.hot property-carly phillips
c.the killing game-iris johansen
d.charade and
e.fat tuesday-sandra brown.

im still reading d islamic jurisprudence book and julie garwood's kill joy!

Muhsin

Get to know [and remember] Allah in prosperity & He will know  [and remember] you in adversity.

ummutameem

judith mcnaught's midnight whispers, another police thriller, im on my way to becoming a detective! help!

bakangizo


I envy you guys. Keep it up. Reading's good. Was a time I was a voracious reader.

Fateez


Quote from: Muhsin on May 15, 2010, 11:50:36 AM
Quote from: gogannaka on May 14, 2010, 12:31:29 PMWole Soyinka is fake (to me). I wouldn't even enjoy his book.
Actually he is one person that i am happy not liking  ::)
I think he's just too arrogant,thinking that his literal abilities make him a demi-god.

You don't have to make it any clear (by saying to you, in particular), GGNK; Soyinaka is, to many, even among literary students, no more than fake. He doesn't even deserve the Nobel Prize he's awarded. Everyone knows Chinua Achebe, the realistic author of the Things Fall Apart, deserves the accolade more than him; and any African who penned any text then, thats 1986.

That was a long argument, thus let me leave it for now.



Now now Gogannaka and Muhsin I can assure you there is absolutely nothing fake about Wole Soyinka's work! Sure

you might not agree with him as a person. In fact, I'm really disappointed at the fact that he's carved himself a niche

as some sort of political detractor. But no matter how much you hate his political stance, you cannot deny the fact

that Wole Soyinka is a FANTASTIC playwright.


Hehehe! It's so funny how you already hate his work without even reading it.

Muhsin, you can't compare Soyinka with Achebe because their writing styles are completely different. Achebe is a novelist

and Soyinka is a playwright. It's like comparing apples and oranges. I personally find Soyinka's work easier to relate to

than Achebe's work which is at times incredibly misogynistic.


The process of the Nobel Prize selection is based on nominations from the creme de la creme of the literary society.

There's a price given even every year to one, two or even three people so it's not like they were competing for the

price or anything. It's just something that happened to be awarded to Soyinka. There was no law that said "Only one

Nigerian must be chosen, who shall it be?" They pick from a pool of writers all over the world! What makes you think

Achebe doesn't receive any accolade? Have you checked out the list of his awards and accomplishments? I say they're

both EXCELLENT writers, unique in their separate fields. We shouldn't judge a book by its cover author.

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."    ~ Mark Twain


Fateez

Quote from: ummutameem on May 14, 2010, 09:21:00 AM

i read things fall apart in my first yr uni, i cant remember wat its all about, time has passed n alot has happened d memory just got displaced smhow.

ive been eyeing some wole soyinkas at d bookshop but i was told his books r hard to understand, is it true? hav u read any?


I think you should give Wole Soyinka a try. I recommend The Lion and the Jewel. it's so engaging! It's the story of a

young girl Sidi who is pretty much the belle of the village and her search for love. Her two most prominent suitors are

Lakunle, the village headmaster and Baroka, the chief of the village. The play is Amazing! Hands down the best African play I

have ever read. We had to perform it for an Arts Festival in High School and I tell you, that story is timeless. I auditioned for

Sidi but apparently I wasn't feisty enough (Hehe!). I had to settle for Sadiku, Baroka's first wife. It was good fun  8)

For Chinua Achebe I absolutely love Anthills of the Savannah! It was a very good read. I think it was his first book where he

had a female protagonist and I tell you he did a good job. Both splendid writers 8)


"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."    ~ Mark Twain


ummutameem

@ fateez, thank u, ll try him IA, i just didnt want to buy a book dat ll be boring, plus like u said d guys human relations is flawed, hes arrogant, but if his books are good, y not, ll let u know if i enjoy it. are u reading anything in particular right now?

@bkgz, y dont u read now?

gogannaka

Surely after suffering comes enjoyment

ummutameem


Muhsin

#193
Salam,

Well, two things might lead one to say Soyinka is not difficult, namely: having an excellent command of the English language as well as a critical mind; or just liking the man as well as his writings, its taste, simplicity or complexity, etc, notwithstanding. And I can aver you get both, Fateez.

But let us see what others have to say about him.

The famous Niyi Osundare is considered, by many literary doyens, a disciple of Soyinka, but did not hesitate in saying what he understands of his teacher and states that the poem of his elders, like:

Soyinka, Okigbo, J.P Clark, [and] Kofi Awoonor, were extremely difficult, particularly Soyinka and Okigbo. Our enthusiasm soon fizzled out. When I started writing, this negative influence was in my mind and I felt it was a duty of the new generation of Nigerian poets to bring poetry back to the people. Contemporary Nigerian Poetry and Poetics of Orality (Ezenwa-Ohaeto, 1998, p16).

Isma'il Bala, a lecturer at the Department of English and French, Bayero University, Kano is also a skyrocketing poet who, at the same time, penned and edited a number of anthologies, and is considered one of the best poets of this generation from the Northern Nigeria; always mentions that although Soyinka is good, his writing is damned difficult to, especially, literary students. To quote him verbatim, he asserts: "Soyinka is unbelievably dense and difficult".

Others who join the race of expressing the man's being difficult include great poets and literary heavyweights like Tanure Ojaide (Nigerian poet now lives in the US), Prof. Abdu Saleh, etc.

And to your mentioning that Soyinka is not a novelist but a playwright; if you say he's best known as a dramatist [and a poet], I can agree with you, but he also writes novels. I even have one, which am yet to read, entitled Interpreters (1960s). This very novel is read and threw away by even many lecturers and PG students because of it's being somewhat a syncretized one. Likewise Achebe too wrote poems; only his realization that he was not good at it as he is at novel writing made him quit. Hence your analogy of him and Achebe as apple and orange stands invalid, for it holds no water.

Concerning the issue of accolade; I do not say, anywhere in my reply, that Achebe didn't collect any, rather I say he deserves the Nobel Prize more than Soyinka, for his writings are more literary, more widely regarded, praised and read; etc. Thereof one joke becomes very popularly in the late 1980s, after the coronation of Soyinka as Nobel Laureate:

Two men were discussing on the Nobel Prize just after the declaration of Soyinka as the winner. One asked the other, "who won the prize?" He answered, "Soyinka". The other asked again, "With what book?" The other responded, saying "he won it with Things Fall Apart."

Understand the gist of the joke? Being Things Fall Apart the most populous book then (and now), everyone thinks the book won the award, but it's the other side.
Get to know [and remember] Allah in prosperity & He will know  [and remember] you in adversity.

Muhsin

Quote from: ummutameem on June 12, 2010, 01:15:09 PM
jackie collins'  american star

I find it hard to hide my astonishment: why are you reading Jackie Collins? I don't like her writing; full with vulgarity, slang and nothing more.  ::)
Get to know [and remember] Allah in prosperity & He will know  [and remember] you in adversity.