One of my biggest dreams as a bibliophile is to be part of an active physical book club, go to book events, and hang out with book enthusiasts within my city. I believe that what binds us as book lovers more than anything is our ability to talk about the books that we read, the things we loved about the books we’ve read, and books we plan to read.
Another thing we love to do is talk about different writing styles of the various authors we come across. We love to gush at what makes one distinct from the other, and the similarities we find in their work. We also love to talk about the different tropes. What has been explored, over-explored, or under-explored. We love to talk about which tropes are our favourites, and playfully argue on why a particular trope may be better. The genres we find the most scintillating, and whether a genre is good because of the genre in itself or because of how the stories in it are written.
We love to talk about what we would do if we met our favourite authors. Authors of books we’d read, and authors of books we’d love and even hated. I didn’t think I would see the author of a book that took my country by storm this year or anytime soon. Yet, in barely a week from now, we will be sitting in the same room. I’ll be listening to her. I’ll be talking to her, and asking her questions. I will be learning from her, as well as other authors who have taken modern Nigerian literature to greater heights.
On the 20th and the 21st of this month, I will be attending, not a book club or some random book event, but a whole book festival that is dedicated to honour books in the way they should be honoured. The event, from all I’ve gathered is packed with so much fun and excitement, and what pleases me about everything is that they are coming here. To my city. My city isn’t one of the biggest in my country, and when it comes to celebrities and noteworthy people visiting, it doesn’t come up as the first places that would pop up.
But they’re here. And it’s going to be amazing, and if you’ll be in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state around this time, I implore you to be there, and not miss the opportunity. Two days of nothing but fun, and if you read Ginika’s Bridesmaids, Adanna, Call Me Legachi, know that this particular author will be one of the guest authors in attendance. Nearly screaming as I type this because who would have thought?!
So, yeah, best believe that since Hive is my first love as far as social platforms are concerned, I’ll be sharing all my experience. Let’s see how it goes, guys. I don’t know if you can feel me excitement from here, and if you can also feel how important this is to me.
I’ve invested my resources into this because that’s how deeply I rate books. It reminds me of those days in secondary school where I’d sacrifice my feeding money to buy books. There’s a reason I’m saying this, but it will be revealed later. In the meantime, here is the link if you’d like to register for the event.
Finally in my true book-girlie era, guys. Anticipate!
Jhymi🖤
All images used with the permission of Boldoz Bookstores.
