The Library Cat and the Bookworm

I love reading. Everyone who knows me well will probably have that as one of the first things to say about me. Growing up I would read anywhere and at any opportunity - I read while walking in the mall, I read in the kitchen while making coffee for my mom, I read in company and I read when my parents were driving us somewhere. Even today I am never without a book no matter where I am going. A few years ago, I worked in a bookshop and was surprised to find out that some of my colleagues back then did not even like reading. Then I had the privilege to start working in a library, where I am still happily working today (my wife will tell you that she does not know anyone else who is so happy to go to work each morning); and here I met with a curious phenomenon. There are readers who cannot or will not read. Now do not get me wrong, I am not talking about the illiterate and semi-literate who cannot or struggle to read because they did not have the means to go to school. Those we need ...

I was privileged to attend a lecture, titled Recovering the Indigenous African Knowledge Systems for Youth Development, given by Professor Mathole Motshekga at the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), Pretoria campus on 25 November 2020. The audience were filled by various information workers such as teachers, librarians and the media. As an information worker myself, studying Library and Information Science and working in a library, I was glad and excited to be present. When I first read the title, I expected a lecture explaining how all Africans, no matter what race or ethnicity, can work together to recover these indigenous knowledge systems which can be used to help the youth in upliftment, better living and more harmony. Instead, there was a quasi-religious cultural exposition on how (black) Africans forgot their roots and how everything that does not sound like it is from a (black) African language should be changed. Now I have no problem with ‘returning to our roots’ and w...

There are different reasons why people read. Some read for entertainment only, others read to enhance themselves, still others read to be more informed about their jobs. There are also reading for research, reading for study and reading for escape. There is, however, at least one thing that kind of or reason for reading have in common and that is in the fact that it helps in shaping your identity. Every time we read anything, from newspapers and magazines to novels and popular fiction as well as any kind of non-fiction, we consciously or unconsciously interact with the text. We may cry or get angry at certain characters in a novel or get upset and write letters to the editor due to certain articles. These interactions, I believe, influence the way we think, form opinions and act. Unconsciously we do not only have an opinion on what we read about but we also change our opinions as we read. Our identity is who we are, how we think and argue, what we like and dislike; and it help us m...

I come from a Christian background where spiritual warfare is an important, yet widely misunderstood, aspect of religious practice. Within this practice such things as Satanism, witchcraft, discerning of spirits, exorcising of demons are elements of which one need to have knowledge in order to wage spiritual warfare. When I were much younger, still in high school, I used to have a healthy interest in these elements (one of my favorite books were one on how to recognize Satanism by a detective Kobus Jonker) and at times practiced spiritual warfare both on my own and with some friends. In the mean time much of my ideas around the subject changed as I learned and understood more. What I thought of as 'witchcraft' were a very childish view which could basically be summarized in the idea that any supernatural 'power' which did not conform to the conservative Christian idea of or from God and the Holy Spirit; had, by default, have to be evil. I did not, as yet, made compariso...

If you've read my profile you will know that my two big loves in life is books and religion. I've been reading books ever since I can remember (and even from before I could remember). I have to thank my mom for this love I have for books and reading. She enjoy telling the story that, when I was just 3 years old, she could take a nap in the afternoons placing me next to her on the bed with a story book and find me just there an hour later looking at the pictures and making up stories for myself. Personally I can't even remember how I came to be almost obsessive about books. My two grandmothers also reads a lot. From my grandmother on my mother's side I learned an appreciation for my Afrikaans language and also for reading stories for the shake of reading. As I was growing up I used to refuse reading anything in English. I remember reading book after book by Ena Murray, Konsalik, Daleen Matthee, CF Beyers-Boshoff and many others. From my grandmother on my father's lea...