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The struggle with many a rigid Logooli cultural practices

  The Logooli community is one of the deeply cultured societies – with near everything supposed to have been done as per custom – to allow another custom to follow. One example is that for a mature man (with a child or more) to be buried, there must be a house structure at home. Another is that a boy must be circumcised and nursed in father land. If maternal family decides to, the boy will have a hard time reconnecting with father people - a dent on his masculinity. There were two children who got burnt to death in a house in Nairobi. The single mother had left for night work. Elders were told that one of the children was Logooli. The other, the woman had sired with someone else. The Logooli family wanted to burry their little one and long discussed the do’s and don’ts. Of a man who died childless and the grave was placed as if he had died as a man with children. It should have been dug on the sides, the grave. A real thorn should have been thrust in his buttocks, his name go...
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A book title lie

Before book titles lure us into reading recently bought books to earlier ones there is a major reason as to why I opt a book over another. To me a book should be a continuation of a previous interest. If I read something interesting in a previous book e.g Myths, legends or beliefs, I would go for a book not far from that. It happens also that when you want to break from a novel kind monotony you may opt for poems or research kind books. What would keep you undistracted is whether you read the previous book heartily to reread comments and suggest a best comment for the book. In short, did the book leave a hangover in you?

The book I took last week had a wonderful title and epilogue. I started reading with an anticipation of enlightment over a period in time when I din’t exist. It could make any non-reader admire. With that propulsion, I went past half just to realise the story lacked a head and a body hence no predictable end. It works well when a book can be predicted. It keeps a reader anxious. But this went on, bringing about characters passively and least building them. It started suffocating me.

Books have a healing effect as good as they can torment. At a point I have had the thought that books should be read with a certain level of mentality that can be achieved through intensive reading. One challenging book can drive a reader crazy. To quote one book as the end of a thought fails one as shallow. If you read a sickening book when bugs are just securing a habitat in your body they will definately conquer the lymphocytes.

We read books with intrinsic attitude of being entertained, informed, challenged, enlightened, taken on adventure and prepared for an experience that could only be related to one in a book. And in doing this a writer who plays his game high has to be original in style and other literary citings. We may have read so much that some words are but cliches. Expressing the stem of the story as sweetly as possible makes one an advanced writer, from my reader’s side of view.

Everyone likes suspense- intelligent suspense. A chase or drama is cool. A find out of something contradictory is even more informing. Well fictioned works score well moreso if lined to some real happenings. And a writer who informs on a certain field of expertise does all-round work. A dislike to an author who uses a great title for a shallow book. A dislike to an author who is in writing for bussiness. A like to an author whose title is the book from start to end. A like to a good book whose title was not as luring.

You however do not start a book with an attitude. What you thought unmoving can be someone else’s master piece. With that I have always tried hard to move on with a book, taking pauses when I chock. I have had the fear that if I left a book at its middle then I should cease to be a reader. He who choses a jembe is not a farmer. It would also create a habit of leaving many books unfinished. It is good to struggle with it and deduct the writer accolades. 

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