A Decade of Blogging | Incessant Scribble

19 Y.O. The night before I turned 20

Ten years ago in an internet cafe on the University of Nigeria, Nsukka campus I created this blog site and published my first blog post titled My Blogenesis. I was there that night with Onyeka Nwelue but he was at a different computer station because that night the cyber cafe was packed. I had needed convincing by my friends Eromo Egbejule and Nwelue (both of whom had blogs at the time) to begin blogging because my major worry was starting the blog and lapsing into irregularity. I was also secretly worried and nervous about putting myself out there and opening myself to scrutiny and criticism. That night I took a leap of faith because they gave me wings and here I am ten years later. Ten years. I was nineteen years old sitting in the cafe that night, 14 days away from turning twenty. I'm twenty-nine years old right now sitting in my apartment, trying to compose this post before heading out to work, 14 days away from that scary number THIRTY. 30 years old. Ohhh myyy gawdd. "What am I doing with my life?" is a question I've asked myself countless times in the past. It's a question that pops into my mind with increasing frequency as these few last days of my twenties flash by.

29 Y.O. This morning. 

I had long imagined that to celebrate this anniversary I would conjure up a thoughtful and lengthy blog post chronicling the last ten years of my life but when I woke up this morning I knew it wasn't going to happen lol. However, it's necessary that I point out the three years break I took from blogging. I started working on getting into pharmacy school the year I moved to America and by 2010 things were heating up. There was lots of stress and pressure as I combined school, secular work, and increased responsibilities at home for the first time in my life. No matter what I had on my plate I needed amazing grades to get into pharmacy school. I was scared of failure and did not want to be distracted so I abruptly restricted all access to this blog site. I locked it up and threw away the key. I have zero blog posts from August 2010 to March 2013, a span of about three years. My leisure reading dipped really low during that hiatus but I'm glad I kept reading. One of the books I always regret not blogging about is Brian Chikwava's Harare North. I wish I had shared how much I enjoyed that book. It wasn't until the end of my first year of pharmacy school that I returned to blogging as a way to deal with the stress of school. Chimamanda Adichie was about to release Americanah and the email from her Nigerian publishers requesting that I announce their release of her novel was the extra push I needed to get back to blogging. I haven't taken any breaks since then.

I had hoped that by today I would have reviewed at least 100 books on this blog site but 77 book reviews from 18 different African countries isn't too shabby. Incessant Scribble has been an incredible blessing in my life. The fact that I've done all of this single-handedly makes me so proud. So freaking proud. I need to thank Onyeka Nwelue & Eromo Egbejule for the love and these wings. I need to thank all my readers. I need to thank all my favorite bloggers who constantly inspire me to work harder at this. I need to thank everyone who visits this blog, subscribes to this blog, tweets, comments, shares and likes my blog posts. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you soo much. You encourage me in more ways that you know. The next decade of my life will undoubtedly bring a lot of change and I'm not yet certain about my plans for this platform that I've cultivated. Whatever I decide I'll keep you posted.

Much Love,

Dr. Osondu Nnamdi Awaraka

My Year in Books | Incessant Scribble 2017

If one meme could sum up my life in 2017 it would be the Kylie Jenner one where she talks about a year of realizing stuff. I literally realized so much stuff in the year 2017. Some of it was good and some of it was bad. I moved out of my parents house permanently in January to a city five hours away so I could work full time. It has been a lot of work but I'm really grateful for every experience and every blessing that came my way in 2017.

I had always imagined that after I'm done with grad school I would have a lot of time to read all the books I've ever wanted to read. My resolution for 2017 was to review at least two books every month and at the time I felt it was a very achievable goal. However, I only reviewed nine books on this platform even though I read fourteen books in all. That's roughly one book a month so I did achieve my minimum expectations for myself which is great considering the kind of year 2017 was for me. One of the reasons my book count is low this year is because I abandoned a good number of books midway! Let me use lists to explain.

Books I READ in 2017
1) Voice of America by E. C. Osondu
2) Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo
3) The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
4) The Mothers by Brit Bennett
5) Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
6) Ruby by Cynthia Bond
7) What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
8) Eyo by Abidemi Sanusi
9) Yellow-Yellow by Kaine Agary [Didn't review]
10) The Day Ends Like Any Day by Timothy Ogene [Didn't review]
11) How to Make Lemonade by Beyonce Knowles-Carter [Didn't Review]
12) Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire (Poetry) [Didn't review]
13) Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman [Didn't review]
14) The Caine Prize for African Writing 2017 Anthology

Books I ABANDONED Midread in 2017
1) Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
2) When We Speak of Nothing by Olumide Popoola
3) Season of Crimson Blossoms by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
4) The Famished Road by Ben Okri
5) Stock Investing for Dummies by Paul Mladjenovic
5) How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu
6) Gratitude in Low Voices by Dawit Gebremichael Habte
7) Resemblance by Afolabi Opanubi
8) Unstoppable: Challenge Accepted Volume 1 by Tariku Bogale

Here are a few words on the five books I was unable to review earlier this year:

Yellow-Yellow by Kaine Agary is about a girl called Yellow-Yellow, the only child of a single mother. Her mother has dreams of her going to school and rising out of poverty and does everything in her power to make sure her daughter has an education. Does Yellow-Yellow want those same things? The last forty pages gave me anxiety. This girl who had grown up in squalor and had been handed great opportunities seemed like she was about to squander them because of fleshly desires. After I read the last page I just stared at it for a few minutes and then I shut the book and sat in silence. I like this novel. I hate, hate, hate the book cover art on my copy published by "Dtalkshop" in Lagos, Nigeria. It's so ugly! Whoever approved it for publishing should be suspended. That person and "CLAM" who's credited with "designing" the cover.

The Day Ends Like Any Day by Timothy Ogene was a good read but somehow I couldn't find the words to review it and I really, really wanted to. Ogene writes with tremendous skill and I savored his words. The novel is about a young boy who's from a poor background and never quite seems destined to lift himself from all of that. He's also harboring same sex attractions deep inside. He goes to college and meets a boy but... I was impressed with Ogene at the beginning but then the novel became foggy with big words and big thoughts. Maybe it's just me. Get yourself a copy.

How to Make Lemonade by Beyonce Knowles-Carter is a beautiful work of art that chronicles the Lemonade album in its entirety. It's a coffee table book with lots of photos interlaced with lyrics and poetry. Its foreword, written by the amazing Michael Eric Dyson, is a gift in itself, a delightful read wholly befitting for a work of this calibre and magnitude. While I waited for my copy to arrive this unboxing video by Kalen Allen had me laughing out loud. My copy is No. 2254. How to Make Lemonade is a treasure.

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire is beautiful. Beau. tiful. This is the first book of poetry that I've ever bought and it's worth it. I discovered Warsan Shire through Beyonce's monumental visual album, LEMONADE. Warsan's poetry is airy and pretty at times but also really dark and deep. I love it a lot. You should read this collection of poetry. It's really tiny collection too about the size of a pamphlet.

Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman is my pick for BEST BOOK I READ IN 2017! It's so deep and humourous and sexual and well written and poetic and generous. It's a tale about a seventeen years old boy whose dad hosts graduates every summer. Elio is deeply, deeply infatuated with their newest guest, Oliver, and he spends a lot of the novel pinning for him then... You should read this.

That Ladies and Gentlemen was my year in books! I'm currently reading Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward and it's so good. So good. I'm on page 47 as at the time of this post. I want to read it greedily but I also want to take my time with it. I just discovered last night that it was one of Barack Obama's Best Books of 2017! Obama and I have similar tastes in books LOL :P

New Year Resolutions for 2018
1) Return back to reading diversely - For quite a while I've been focused on blogging about books by African authors and then I expanded to African-American authors. Henceforth I'm going to go back to reading the way I read before all of this extra stuff. I'll read everything and anything I find interesting :)

2) I'll drop a book if I don't find it interesting - I'm done struggling through bad prose just so I can say I've read a certain author or to increase my count of the number of African countries I've read from or to increase my book review count in general. If I buy a book and I start reading it and it's difficult to get through I'll drop it like it's hot and move on to the next book on my shelf. There are way too many novels out there to waste time on one. It makes me sad to imagine all the books I'll never ever read.

Have a WONDER-FULL, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! May 2018 be everything you hope it will be! 

Blogger Spotlight on Mary Okeke Reviews

Mary Okeke Reviews is one of my favorite literary blogs out there. Its creator Mary Okeke recently began the Blogger Spotlight series on her blog and yesterday she featured me! It's a really good interview and I'm grateful to Mary for the feature. Head over to Mary Okeke Reviews to find out more about me and my blog Incessant Scribble. Enjoy!

[Image via MaryOkekeReviews]

TBR Book Tag!

I got tagged to put up a "To-Be-Read" post by Darkowaa of the beautiful and inspiring blog, African Book Addict. Here are my responses to the TBR questions. Enjoy!

1. How do you keep track of your TBR pile?
I have a post-it widget on my computer that I use for everything. There's a post-it with my To-Do list of everything academic and then there's a post-it with my TBR list for my blog. I'm constantly moving around the titles, adding to the list, and changing my book review choices for any particular month. It's always there when I turn on my computer. I like it a lot. It helps me keep track of everything I need to do.

2. Is your TBR mostly print or e-book?
It's 99% print. I only read e-books when I have to. E-books are actually really convenient but I prefer print. I think I always will.

3. How do you determine which book from your TBR to read next?
I buy the books I'm interested in reading and I keep them on my bookshelf. Selecting what book to read next from my bookshelf is random a lot of the time. Book covers are very enticing so I could reach for a book on my shelf based on that. Sometimes it's based on the number of pages because I have a fixed window of free time between semesters. Sometimes I select a book based on who the author is.

4. A book that has been on your TBR the longest?
Right now it would be between Tolulope Popoola's Nothing Comes Close and Eghosa Imasuen's To Saint Patrick. I'll get to them one day I promise. 

5. A book you recently added to your TBR?
Darkowaa posted today because she got tagged. I read her post and ordered Baking in Kigali by Gaile Parkin AND Kabu Kabu by Nnedi Okoroafor on Amazon before settling down to pen this post. Good job Darkowaa :).  

6. A book on your TBR strictly because of its beautiful cover?
I like the cover of Alain Mabanckou's Tomorrow I'll Be Twenty a lot and so I bought it. It's not the only reason I bought it but it's one of the main reasons. Again I saw it featured on the African Book Addict blog soo... Good job Darkowaa! My money go soon finish. 

7. A book on your TBR that you never plan on reading?
I wouldn't say I "never plan on reading" but I know deep inside that it would have to be the only unread book on my shelf before there's even the slightest chance that I will read it. I won't mention the book title. 

8. An unpublished book on your TBR that you're excited for?
Right now it's The Longings of Jende Jonga by Imbolo Mbue (I'm aware the title has changed but whatever). It's the book whose movie rights were sold for seven figures. I can't wait. I wasn't aware that Teju Cole had a new book coming out until I read Darkowaa's post so I'm excited about that. I hope I can finish Open City before the new release. It has been on my TBR for a while.

9. A book on your TBR that everyone recommends to you?
White Teeth by Zadie Smith and The Famished Road by Ben Okri have been recommended to me since forever. I need to finally read them. I've booked them for 2016. 

10. A book on your TBR that everyone has read but you?
The Famished Road by Ben Okri. 

11. A book on your TBR that you're dying to read?
The Longings of Jende Jonga

12. How many books are in your Goodreads TBR shelf?
I use Shelfari more often than I use Goodreads and I have the Shelfari bookshelf widget on my blog. My Goodreads TBR shelf has 6 books. 

Incessant Scribble - Anniversary The First

Exactly twelve months ago, I signed up for a blogspot account. I knew what I wanted the web address to be, but I hadn’t thought about the blog title before accessing the internet. Even though I had forgotten the sheet of paper on which I had scribbled a great part of my first post, I still flowed. The more I typed, the more confident I became, the more certain I was that I was taking the right step. I’ll save the rest of my scribbling history for Oprah.

Entering Blogville has opened my eyes. There is so much talent out there just begging to be discovered. So much. Blogging, in my opinion, gives the blogger some of the same thrill published authors get when they receive responses from people who have read their work. It’s great! Some people think there’s nothing to it, just sign up and readers will come. It’s not easy to shoot into the blogsphere with a bang and then consistently deliver afterwards. What’s easy is becoming complacent and losing the readers that peruse your pages. In the blogville race to be well read, it’s easy, too easy to lag behind.

Many thanks to Onyeka Nwelue and Eromo Egbejule for urging me to do this. I also want to thank my “blog-brothers” (remember you read it here first) - Aloofar, Jaja and Afolabi, my “blog-sister”- nigeriandramaqueen, and all the friends who have always supported this project. Thank you very much. Many thanks to my No.1- Crystal, and to my other regular commenters for keeping it real. I’m grateful.

After spending one year it’s only nice to share a few tips:

For those bloggers who put their intellectual properties for all to peruse, please, please, check out myfreecopyright.com.

For those who haven’t already done so, install a free blog visit tracker, it’s immensely valuable. This profile view thing just isn’t it. Check out sitemeter.com and shinystat.com(There are many others out there).

READ my first post "My Blogenesis"

My Blogenesis

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to Incessant Scribbles. I had penned down something well thought out and appropriate long before now, only to reach the cybercafe and realise I have left it back in my room. Who needs that silly sheet of paper anyway...

I settled down to write after I finished secondary school. I wrote a lot of poems, and a lot of other stuff I'm glad you won't be able to grade, and I kept them. I did not show them to anyone neither did I tell anyone I was writing. It was for my eyes only. That was the same way I acted when I began writing lenghtier prose. I delayed showing my work to my siblings, friends and family. In hindsight, I think I was anxious. I was not sure how they would react.

Here in Nigeria we tell stories. A lot of stories. Parents tell their children stories, grandparents gather their grandchildren and tell them stories. It's in our culture, it's in our blood. We tell stories often...we just don't seem to write as much. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we don't have books written by indigenous writers, we do. It's just that writing is still somewhat a foreign idea. Telling your parents or friends, in those years before third generation writers such as Chimamanda Adichie drew more attention to the art, that you wanted to be a writer was like saying you wanted to be a musician. I use that analogy because when my parents were kids, music was not the ideal career path. Parents did not support kids who studied it, it was something rebellious, no-good teens did.

I might be wrong, but I think one of the reasons our parents are so worried when we talk about pursuing the arts is because they fear we would not have enough to support ourselves and in the future, our families. Yes, pursuing a literary career doesn't pay the bills always. It doesn't guarantee a steady source of income in this part of the world. Our parents know it, we too can see it with our young eyes. So what do we end up doing?. We relegate to the background our inherent talent and pursue a career we don't not love, just so we can be more comfortable. Just so we can fit into a society that neither supports nor appreciates art. I think it's also possible (it seems to be the case with me) that we are not sure of exactly how much talent we possess. Is it below average or just average writing skills? As is the case with me, there were not many successful Nigerian writers I could relate to until Adichie came along. A girl who is not as far off as our literary greats- Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Elechi Amadi etcetera. A girl whose story I could read and draw parallels.

I'm not saying I have broken away from the norm and "I'm pursuing my dream". I'm just speaking out. My generation does not entertain itself with literature. If entertainment doesn't come from a screen we are apathetic. Growing up, I developed an interest in books. So much so I genuinely appreciated a book my mom got me on my birthday (Enid Blyton's The Rabbit's Whiskers and Other Stories) . I don't think many of the kids in my generation (Millenial) would smile happily if presented with a storybook or novel as a birthday present instead of a brand new game console. Without the genius of Joanne Kathleen Rowling, millions of kids worldwide would never have discovered the sweet joy, words on a printed page can give. The joy derived from flipping pages, wondering what the character is going to do next, trying to guess what the author will write next. The joy that you get from being drawn into a book, into someone else's world and coming back out savouring the experience days, months and years.

People my age (those in their early twenties) don't carry novels, that's for girls. I can count on one hand the number of friends I have with whom I can discuss literature. I can't count the number of times I have felt embarrassed for carrying and borrowing books when my peers were borrowing game consoles. Fortunately, I never discarded the habit. I love books now and I will love them till I die.

I am trying my hand at writing, I want to see if I can affect people with what I write. And to do find out that, I need an audience. That's where YOU come in. I would be immensely grateful if you stop by as often as you can, and check out what I have written, and if I have written anything, I need you to leave your COMMENTS. No matter how harsh they sound, no matter how little you think you know about writing to judge me, Leave a comment. If you think I'm really good, SPREAD THE WORD. I will appreciate it very much. It won't be easy juggling school work with this but I will post as often as i can.

THANK YOU for your time,

Osondu Nnamdi Awaraka