Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to more light – Vera Nazarian
Annus Horribilis.
This Latin phrase captures the year 2020. These two words encapsulate the spirit and essence of the year. It is a year like no other. There is nothing to add to the description. Latin as a language has a way with words and many English words, anyway, also owe their origins to Latin.
The year 2020 is a horrible year that many would like to forget and pretend it didn’t happen. In fact, I saw somewhere on the social media where someone joked that he never made use of 2020 and was going to minus the year from his lifetime! But is that possible? Well, there are many possibilities in the world of the social media.
So, if a year was so horrific and horrible why talk about a Book of the Year? That may be a good question and the good answer to it is also that, we all lived it and cannot deny it. Despite its horrible accompaniments, we cannot wish 2020 away. The year of Covid-19. Year of Corona virus. Year of deaths of prominent and not so prominent personalities. But life must go on. There are also good things that happened in the year. It is in the same year that the first African Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka had the time to complete and publish his first novel in almost half a century!
Even in the worst of possibilities and times, there have been one great companion of man that cannot be wished away. In the worst periods of life was when great books were written. If we look critically into history, we are going to see that the best books are not necessarily written at the best periods. If this were not the case, why did Charles Dickens in one of his greatest of all times novels had these as the opening sentences in A Tale of Two Cities? He wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”
It is in the midst of all this that we also had some writers winning awards while others died. Ayobami Adebayo won the Prix Les Afriques Prize for her debut novel Stay With Me which was translated into French as Reste Avec Moi. Jumoke Verissimo’s debut novel A Small Silence also won the Aidoo-Snyder Prize for Best Creative Work 2020, while Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s 2006 novel Half of a Yellow Sun, won the 25th anniversary of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. The list is long across Africa and the world. The pandemic didn’t stop writers from producing award winning books. Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain edged out two-time Booker Prize winning Hillary Mantel from even the Booker shortlist! This is why I am asking you readers of this column, the bibliophiles to come around and let us jaw-jaw as we normally do about books that we enjoyed reading in this annus horribilis! It goes without saying that books are man’s greatest company in any situation. How do you express joy? When you are happy you pick up a book to read. The situation becomes same when you are in despair. From Biblical times books have been known to be tools of lifting man out of despair. As bad as 2020 has been, the book world has come to the rescue and readers and writers have become united in pursuing the joys of reading. According to Groucho Max, “Outside a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read.” Let’s vote for book and a healthy reading habit. There is nothing to supplant an informed mind.
There have been many who have confessed that the period of the nationwide (in fact, worldwide) lockdown was the most productive period for them in that they were able to find the time to read so many books they have been postponing reading. Books at this period served as the passport and visa needed to travel round the world while sitting with a cup of coffee or any of your favourite drinks at a spot. A writer once wrote something to the effect that a reader lives many lifetimes while nonreaders have only one life! There is no doubt about that because with a book you can know a lot about many people you have never met before or may not even meet.
In that light, I call on you readers to help me in selecting your own Book of the Year. I decided to throw this open because I want it to be as diverse and encompassing as possible. If I decide to choose, my choice cannot be as embracing as involving you. What I request of you is to choose a book or two that you read this year (2020) and write a few words to me and tell us about the book and the reason for your choice. It is important that you tell us the book, author and perhaps the publisher and why you feel it should be our Book of the Year.
We are not going to be restrictive about the year of publication because we know books get to people at different times and they get to read them at different times too. Our major concern is for you to let us know about that book your read in 2020 that got you lifted and changed your world and your views about life and situations.
We expect your entries between now and January 15. Entries that meet our requirements would be published.
Your entries should be sent to yinka2005@gmail.com
