To be a good writer, one must read. As soon as I learned to read, I became a voracious reader, devouring library books and the Weekly Reader books that arrived each month. Books were a big part of my childhood world, as I mentioned in my memoir, What Lies Within. The reading habits I established early have remained with me all my life.
My taste in books is eclectic. Most often I read memoirs, but I also enjoy fiction, humor, mystery, adventure, and travel stories. I have been fortunate to travel extensively, and I’ve absorbed new places and different cultures by reading about them beforehand. Afterwards I may choose a book set in a country I’ve visited to recall and enhance my experience. Through reading I’m taken back to a time and place I hold dear. I find setting to be a major factor in what I choose to read.
Today I’ll focus on Africa, a place I’ve wanted to venture ever since I read the novel Binstead’s Safari by Rachel Ingalls 30 years ago. I finally realized my dream in 2008 and toured South Africa and Zimbabwe with my husband.
Recently I wrote about gifted memoirist Alexandra Fuller. Her stories of growing up in Africa drew me to the “real” Africa after I had visited the tourist’s Africa and fallen in love with the continent, despite its harsh realities.
I’ve also read Peter Godwin’s memoir, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun. This in-depth story of visiting his aging parents in Zimbabwe depicted how their lives had changed under Mugabe’s rule. Both Fuller’s and Godwin’s parents refused to leave the land and people they loved, despite the hardships they endured.
Alexander McCall Smith’s Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency series, set in the country of Botswana, describes another African nation—one the author clearly adores. Its endearing, quirky fictional characters and their adventures make me want to visit this country that seems to differ greatly from the ones in Godwin’s and Fuller’s books.
My visit to Africa encouraged me to read other books about the continent that gave me greater insight. These include the introspective novel Skinner’s Drift by Lisa Fugard; the dark picture of post-colonial Africa in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver; the lighthearted travel journal, Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik by Marie Javins; the heartwrenching true story, When She Was White by Judith Stone; Bill Bryson’s African Diary, a tribute to Kenya; and Tracy Kidder’s tragic tale of the Burundian and Rwandan genocides in Strength in What Remains.
I’ve learned so much through my travels and my reading. Both encourage me to keep writing.
